So far we can file this only in the Department of Irony, not Hypocrisy. But stand by. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Mortgage Bankers Association, the country's premier mortgage trade group, is selling its headquarters for $41.3 million -- way less than the $79 million it paid for the building three years ago. That's also far less than its mortgage of $75 million, says the Journal, via Reuters.

Will this turn into a short sale? Will the MBA walk away from the difference that it owes a lending group headed by PNC Financial? Will it do what it has urged homeowners not to do? That would be an act of headline hypocrisy for the books. As the Journal's James R. Hagerty reports, MBA executive John Courson has urged families with underwater mortgages to keep making the payments.

"What about the mess they will send to their family and their kids and their friends?" Courson asked the Journal last year.

Now, says Hagerty: "On Saturday, Mr. Courson declined in an interview to say whether the MBA would pay off the full loan amount. 'We're not going to discuss the financing,' he said."