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I see Diana Olick’s recent comments about government mortgage modification programs as proof that these props will not work.
She says:
Despite extraordinary loss mitigation efforts that have resulted in the execution of approximately two million loan modifications – including the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) trial periods – the number of new delinquencies since [...]

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Meredith Whitney was on CNBC in London this morning. She concentrates her comments on mortgages and banking. She sees the winter lull as a harbinger of renewed softness in the housing market.
Note: the FOMC statement today reiterated the ending dates for MBS purchases. Let’s see how this plays out for mortgage rates in April and [...]

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Ann Lee and Dan Alpert joined Bloomberg’s Pimm Fox today to talk about the housing market recovery. Lee, a professor of finance at New York University, was sceptical that population growth predicts any substantial increase in housing transactions and prices simply due to the continued pressure on wages and disposable income. and Dan Alpert, managing [...]

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Nationwide released it’s monthly house price survey, and it showed the first month-to-month fall in UK house prices since last Spring. However, house prices are still up 9.2% year-on-year according to their survey.
Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: 
The price of a typical UK property fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.0% month-on-month (m/m) in February, [...]

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The National Association of Realtors® announced today that existing home sales dropped a hefty 7% in January, adding further evidence that the resurgence of the housing sector is stalling. Wednesday, we saw a very soft new home sales number. Now, we see more softness in existing home sales as well.
Their press release stated:
Existing-home sales fell [...]

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A post by Marc Chandler, head of Brown Brother Harriman’s Currency Strategy Team. For BBH’s currency views, visit the website here.
Many investments houses have been extremely bullish on the Swedish krona.  Swedish shares have generally outperformed most European bourses thus far this year, with the exception of Switzerland.  Swedish bonds have also fared fine, with [...]

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The December 2009 data for the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Indices were released this morning.  The data are showing a mixed picture. On the one hand, the unadjusted numbers are down on both a month-to-month and year-over-year basis (Composite-10 and Composite-20 respectively down 2.5% and 3.2% versus December 2008). Only four of twenty markets saw price [...]

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A few thoughts on the links here
Notice Michael Tomasky’s calls for higher taxes. He says:
If there is one core attribute that makes Democrats Democrats, it is that they believe in government, which means you have to believe in taxes, which in turn means that you especially believe in taxing the incomes of the rich, which [...]

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As I am still away for the week, you have seen a lot of posts from others. I do still have a lot of links though, and may do two (or three) for today. Here is the first batch.  Enjoy!
Edward
Irony: Greek Banks Aren’t the Most Exposed – International Trader – Europe – Jonathan Buck – [...]

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Given my post on Jim Rogers’ doubting Chanos’ knowledge about China, I thought it appropriate to post the latest Chanos interview on the China property bubble. 
This call by Chanos is really setting us up for some seriously entrenched camps of pro-China bulls (like Rogers)against China sceptics (like Chanos, but also like Andy Xie). Is [...]