On Monday, a state and federal working group led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a $5 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs in connection with practices that contributed to the financial crisis. Of the $5 billion, $670 million will be allocated to New York state.

NYT: People are glad they don't own houses. If they do, they're sad. Especially men.

Oh pity the poor denizens of Williamsburg. The erosion of hipster trust funds is leading their greasy little utopia to slowly devolve into some sort of Mad Max-esque, post-apocalyptic real estate wasteland, just like Miami! So says New York Magazine.

Why did Republican Senator John Ensign's sexual dalliance with a married former staffer get revealed now? Because of subprime mortgages and the Nevada housing crisis!

With more and more Americans out on the street, one black Chicago family, forced to move to Washington DC but denied entrance to their temporary shelter, found a place to stay this cold January.

Slate's pop-economist (every important media outlet is required to have a pop-economist who misuses the analytical tools of his inexact science to "prove" unlikely and surprising things each week) explains that housing foreclosures are good because after people are kicked out of their homes, other people get to move into those homes. Relevant excerpt: "I could use economics to explain why those readers are mistaken (a glut of homes on the market leads to falling prices, etc.), but that's unnecessarily complicated." [Slate]