Let’s start off with Mortgage Concepts Every Buyer Should Know. This important little article is must-read stuff for those trying to become first-time homeowners.

Maybe you knew that once you have a mortgage with a bank, the bank can sell that mortgage? Fannie Mae is a company (and former government subsidiary, it’s complicated) that buys those mortgages, freeing up your bank to lend money to somebody else. Fannie is in the process of tightening the rules on exactly what mortgages they will buy.

If you are losing your home, your mortgage holder might pay you to not trash the place on your way out! So please think twice about stealing the plumbing fixtures or leaving holes in the wall. You could use some cash, couldn’t you?

Speaking of leaving a mess, I was recently showing a bank-owned home where it appears that the previous owner locked the cat inside and let them pee absolutely everywhere. There was just too much pee to be explained by anything else. I can only hope this poor animal had food and water, and was safely removed from the home. For pity sake, please provide for your pets! Even if you don’t see pets as family members (in which case why did you get them?), your kids do. Do you want your kids wondering if you will leave them behind when money gets too tight? The flipside of this problem is that your local animal shelter or rescue group probably has some great new pets hoping to find a new home.

A new book called Greed, Fraud and Ignorance tells us even more about how we got into this mess.

These same problems might play out worldwide, as “Overvaluated housing [is] not limited to U.S.”

And lets close with a group of articles on the things Congress is doing to help the situation: it looks like homebuilders are getting a big tax break (yay for keeping construction workers employed, but the last thing we need is artificially inflated supply of new housing); there is little help for homeowners, well, maybe not even that; and both parties want to get something done so they can look voters in the eye this fall and say they did something. Not that there is a simple fix to this situation that doesn’t involve a time machine, but I’d settle for things that were actually helpful and don’t make the situation worse.