carlislematthew, calculated risk (bubble blogger link)has been keeping us updated. The state lending guidelines were released a week ago, and now each state has to adopt and issue them. 9 states did so in the first week, but CA is not yet on the list.
As far as shopping, there seems to be 2 year lag between falling house prices and reduced consumer spending. See Chart 21 on Gary Shilling’s excellent piece (thanks to some folks at the meetup for telling me about Shilling). Spending slowdown already started in big ticket items, like houses, cars, furniture, and home improvement companies (contractors, Home Depot). It will ripple out. The biggest lesson to me is how slowly this all moves.
