A weekend topic starting with Market Watch. "The Federal Reserve is currently reviewing its monetary-policy strategy, tools and communications practices, to determine how best to achieve its congressional mandate of maximum employment and stable prices. The raw material is money. Sometimes it chases goods and services. At other times, it chases assets."

"Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan used to say that central bankers were ill-equipped to identify asset bubbles: to hold a finger to the wind and determine that, say, residential real estate prices were over-valued or that tech stocks were trading at inflated levels relative to expected earnings."

"'To favor leaning against the credit cycle is not at all the same thing as advocating ‘targeting’ asset prices,' said William White, former chief economist at the Bank for International Settlements. Rising asset prices are 'a symptom, an imbalance, arising from easy credit conditions.'"

"'What happens is that, over time, debt imbalances associated with an expansion and the increasing use of monetary policy to lean against the downturn build up,' White said. 'We end up with a cumulative mountain of debt. The impulse for credit creation, for more debt, comes out of easy oney in the downturn, which is not matched by a symmetrical raising of interest rates in the upturn.'"

The Wall Street Journal. "Chief Executive Officer Rich Barton said the home-flipping business is clearly resonating with consumers. Co-president of Zillow Offers Jeremy Wacksman said the Homes business is 'drowning in demand.' The seller interest is so strong, he said, that the company is only buying 3% to 5% of homes offered to it by sellers."

"Still, Zillow isn’t making money on the business yet. Zillow’s Homes segment lost $45.2 million in the first quarter."

The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah. "Utah’s home prices are on a multiyear climb and well-heeled buyers, at least, are still snapping up houses. You would think these would be heady days for the state’s homebuilders. But Clark Ivory is unsettled."

"Unless conditions change, Ivory also sees trouble looming for the state’s economy and for his homebuilding business, which his family has run since 1983. Michael Parker, senior economist for Ivory Homes, called the price hikes 'the antithesis of what we’re trying to accomplish, but we’re stuck.' The housing market’s persistent rise, he said, is not sustainable."

"'Pricing has got to level,' Ivory added. 'If we don’t change, we’re going to be struggling.'"

The Waco Tribune in Texas. "McLennan County’s preliminary appraisal values show a slower but steady increase in property values. 'I think it is leveling off,' said Frances Pool, senior real estate specialist at Keller Williams Realty. 'Everybody is all worried that there is a shift in the real estate market, but the shift they are talking about is only 3%. It is really just a natural correction. I think we have seen that our sellers are wiser because they price their houses properly and they sell quickly and they usually get about 96% of the asking price if they are priced correctly. And correctly means what the market shows it will bear.'"

"Pool said she understands why people are lining up to appeal their appraisals at MCAD. She said some houses are selling at below appraised value, including one Pool is listing for $529,000 that MCAD appraised at $625,000."

From Yahoo Entertainment on California. "Real Housewives of Orange County' star Gretchen Rossi is in danger of losing her O.C. home to foreclosure, with the reality star accused of falling behind on her payments by nearly $26,000. According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Quality Loan Service Corporation is putting Rossi on notice of default, letting her know if she doesn’t pay up quickly, they will foreclose on her home and sell it at auction."

"Quality Loan notes they have not set an auction date but say a date will be set 90 days from the notice. They accuse Rossi of being behind $25,894.91 on her Costa Mesa condo mortgage. She took out the $538,000 mortgage on the property back in 2005."

From CNBC. "Angelo Mozilo, for many, was one of the enduring faces of the financial crisis. Too enduring, in fact, for his taste. Looking back more than a decade later, the former head of Countrywide Financial, whose sprawling subprime loan business symbolized the financial recklessness of the real estate bubble, said he’s become a convenient scapegoat without justification."

"'Everybody blames the subprime. To me, it’s nonsense,' he said this week. 'If you take the totality of the subprime assets, the value of the subprime business that existed at the time ... it was a puddle in an ocean. But it’s an easy target for the politicians and media to attack, to rile people up about. But it was not the cause at all.'"

"'Real estate values became very, very inflated; asset values throughout the financial industry became very, very inflated; and a bubble was created, and it didn’t take much to penetrate that bubble,' he added."