The tangled web of federal financing that was lashed together to help fund homeowners' energy efficiency projects has unraveled quite quickly. Robert Selna of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the California Energy Commission is pulling the plug on $30 million set aside for the now in-limbo Property Assessed Clean Energy program or PACE. This, after state officials, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked federal officials

California mortgage brokers have a little over a week to pass criminal background and credit checks as well as a licensing exam as the state becomes one of the first to adopt new federal regulations, according to John Gittelsohn of Bloomberg. California is one of the 20 or so U.S. states that currently lack any licensing program for mortgage brokers.

[caption id="attachment_9474" align="alignleft" width="95" caption="Jerry Brown"][/caption] Maligned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be taken to the woodshed by California's attorney general after the companies warned lenders about supposed dangers associated with energy efficiency loans tied to home mortgages. As Dow Jones Newswires reports in The Wall Street Journal, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said Tuesday he was initiating “major action” against the companies

So much for 'Jingle-mail.' Fannie Mae, the federally chartered and now federally controlled mortgage backer, announced it will start going after those who can afford their mortgages, but walk away anyway, according to E. Scott Reckard of the Los Angeles Times. Jingle-mail (yet another cutesy term in the real estate lexicon), refers to mailing your house keys to your bank, or maybe to some Norwegian village suckered into buying now worthless mortgage-backed securities.

The success of the financial reform package the Obama administration is pushing  will depend on one thing: simplicity.  As NPR's Mara Liasson makes clear, passing financial reform passed is an Obama priority and the Democrats think they've got the votes.  But keeping the public behind this effort, and showing citizens that we're reining in the banks for real this time is more important than the political calculus.

By Marci Greenstein It’s hard to find any hopeful news about the housing crisis.  There was a sharp decline in home sales in December.  And the federal Home Affordable Modification Program, which was supposed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, is not working.  But Ruth Simon of the Wall Street Journal highlighted ...

ProPublica's Paul Kiel blogs that the Treasury Dept. quietly announced Friday afternoon that it was providing another $15 billion in its bailout of now wholly government-owned mortgage financier Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae has received a total of $60 billion in taxpayer bailout money, while its sister company, Freddie Mac, has received $50 billion. That's $110 billion in bailout money that doesn't come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but, as Kiel explains, a separate housing bailout. Barack Obama's home ownership assistance program has exacerbated Fannie Mae's troubles.

The New York Times' David Streitfield and John Collins Rodolf report that state attorneys general might start suing mega-banks: Frustrated by the banks’ inability or unwillingness to stop an avalanche of foreclosures, the states are considering lawsuits over the creation and marketing of millions of bad loans as well as the dismal pace of mortgage modifications. Such cases would have been impossible until recently, because federal regulators had exclusive oversight of national banks. But a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision in June allowed the states to exercise their own supervision, giving them significant leverage. This Supreme Court case that gives state AGs some oversight over national banks is pretty amazing:

Nick Timiraos of the Wall Street Journal looks into problems at the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, a program of the Treasury Department. The program, designed to help homeowners renegotiate risky mortgages with their existing lenders, has helped 60,000 homeowners, when "the Obama administration said that millions of ...

Congress's bill to tax 90 percent of bonus money received by employees at bailed out companies will severely hurt the good people at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, say reports from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, actually Zach Goldfarb ...