It appears the shit in housing is about to re-hit the fan. While in December, the Mortgage Brokers Association anticipated an already staggering 24% drop in mortgage originations, a mere month later they now see the drop to be 40%. And all this occurring with Q.E.'s MBS purchases set to expire in less than 3 months. With mid-term elections coming, someone better line up more bailouts, stimuli and subsidies pronto. The American dream of middle-class homeowner debt slavery must continue.

Lenders will underwrite $1.28 trillion in home loans this year, down from $2.11 trillion in 2009, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in its latest forecast. That would be the lowest since $1.14 trillion in 2000. The forecast was downgraded from December, when the MBA predicted originations would fall about 24 percent.

And if anyone still thinks Q.E. is ending...

Interest rates are expected to rise when the Federal Reserve completes its pledge to support the mortgage securities market with $1.25 trillion in purchases.

Not to worry - taxpayers, as usual, will come to the involuntary rescue:

The MBA on Tuesday also said it will also encourage creation of a new type of government-guaranteed mortgage security that would be backed by privately owned, government-chartered "mortgage-credit guarantor entities" based off existing U.S. mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Gotta love the dollar strength we have been seeing recently. Enjoy it while you can - Tim Geithner is about to make yet another public lie about how he "supports a strong dollar policy."

