Realtors attend worship service to pray for better market

Here's all you need to know about the state of the housing market.

DESTIN — More than 300 people with a keen interest in the Emerald Coast’s real estate market gathered Wednesday at Destiny Worship Center to ask for God’s blessing. The Real Estate Prayer Luncheon was organized in hopes of breathing life and positive thinking into the area’s slumping housing market.

For full coverage of the slow train-wreck that is the Bear Stearns suicide/housing implosion/ global-credit house of cards read Calculated Risk and Mish. They're at least six months ahead of the mainstream media (which means they're not covering Anna Nicole or Paris or the missing white woman of the week), and the analysis and comments are outstanding.

Same for Market Ticker, who has this to say about the markets, among other things:

Let me be clear - what I'm implying here is that this cycle of fraud and avarice in the markets may be worse than the '00 Tech Wreck. In fact, it may be much worse.

I agree with him. The leverage involved today is unreal. Like I said back in February:

There's a lot of people, banks, hedge funds, pension funds, little old ladies etc. holding mortgage-backed securities who simply are never going to be repaid. The money is gone.