Here we go again - Dow off 242

Anything having to do with real estate took big hits - no doubt the fallout from worries about subprime financing. So among local issues, you had mortgage lenders IndyMac off 7.6 percent and Countrywide off 4.7 percent; and homebuilders KB off 5.4 percent and Ryland off 4.9 percent. But here's the thing: foreclosures are increasing for folks with good credit ratings, not just the subprime people. That's what has Wall Street worried - that the subprime problems are leaking into the overall housing market. Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo told CNBC that the mortgage sector was suffering "a liquidity crisis" that was "going to get uglier." Now, Mozilo tends to be hyperbolic, but that's the kind of chatter making the rounds. The irony is that the February housing numbers for L.A. County show an increase in the median price from a year ago and sales that was still down but not quite as down as we saw for much of 2006. Here's some gallows humor: New Century Financial, the Irvine-based subprime lender that's been the catalyst for all this angst, was sent down from the NYSE to the lowly Pink Sheets. Its new ticker symbol is NEWC. That rhymes with "nuke." Bloomberg NYT