The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from Fox 4 South Florida. "Homes are flying off the market Florida real estate market, resembling the years leading to the 2008 housing market crash. Realtor Kayinah Destine with Twin Metro Realty says lenders have stricter guidelines now to prevent that from happening again. 'The credit...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "October brought a degree of reprieve from seemingly relentless price increases for Seattle-area home shoppers, as median prices in King County dipped slightly from September. The Seattle condo market, meanwhile, is 'presenting a ‘buyer’s market’...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Mariano Rivera, the retired Major League Baseball pitcher, is listing his home in Rye, an affluent community in Westchester County, N.Y., for $3.995 million. Mr. Rivera and his wife bought the property in 2006 for $5.7 million, according to listing agent...

A report from Bloomberg on Canada. "Toronto’s condo market showed more signs of cooling in October. 'Tight downtown condo markets that previously commanded expensive rents are now thick with supply,' Robert Hogue, an economist with Royal Bank of Canada, wrote. 'And the flow of immigrants that...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Some of the most conservative real-estate funds are suffering from falling property values, putting their fund managers in a tough spot as investors look to cash out. Now that the pandemic has caused values of hotels, retail properties and even many office...

A report from the Commercial Observer. "New York is going to need a long time to recover from 2020. Exhibit 1: Givenchy and its parent company LVMH just paid a whopping $24.5 million to not finish their leaseat Jeff Sutton’s 747 Madison Avenue. That’s how bad retail has gotten along Madison Avenue....

A report from CNBC. "'Everybody I know is leaving,' said Michael Kronenberg, who owns a downtown Manhattan apartment. 'It’s not just New Yorkers. My partners, long-time clients and investors of mine that live in Connecticut or New Jersey, they are used to commuting in to the city. They’re never...

A weekend topic starting with the Wall Street Journal. "Detroit is making a comeback after years of decline that led to a bankruptcy filing in 2013. But large swaths of the city are left behind, starved of the housing credit needed to revive them. No purchase mortgages were made last year in almost...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "A wave of foreclosures is likely coming that will hit low-income homeowners. As of August, over 10% of the eight million single-family mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration were delinquent by more than three months. According to the...

A report from Forbes on New York. "'This certainly doesn’t look good,' Victor Rodriguez tells me. Rodriguez is Director of Market Analysts for real estate intelligence firm CoStar Group. 'The problem for New York City’s office and residential markets is that there’s now tons of available space with...

A report from CTV News in Canada. "A Canadian website with about 9,000 residential rental listing in Toronto said the pandemic has created an unprecedented market for renters, with many landlords offering tenants major incentives. One listing on the website advertises free rent until 2021. 'It's...

A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. "If you’re falling behind on rent, don’t just wait for consequences. Your landlord may be open to negotiation. 'Residents shouldn’t hesitate to reach out to their housing provider,' agreed Fred Sutton, a senior vice president of public affairs with...

A report from the Sun Sentinel. "The housing market in South Florida has been booming for much of 2020 — sparked by low interest rates, high demand and low inventory — but real estate experts say they consider the trend a bubble that probably won’t last. 'We’re in a huge bubble type thing right...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Isaac Kassirer was at the forefront of one of the hottest trends in commercial real estate. He borrowed from global investors by promising to gentrify apartment buildings in New York’s low-income neighborhoods and raise the rents. Mr. Kassirer fell behind on...

A weekend topic starting with the Los Angeles Times. "When Steve Qunell won a seat on the City Council last year in this town of 8,000, he figured he’d be dealing with potholes and affordable housing. Instead, he finds himself at the center of a raging debate over how to fight the coronavirus. The...

A weekend topic starting with the Associated Press. "While REITs overall are lagging the broader stock market this year, apartment REITs are among the worst-performing. The 15 apartment REITs included in the Nareit index have a negative total return of 26.2%. 'It’s totally a renters’ market in...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "A San Diego-based mortgage lender has agreed to pay nearly $25 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly approved ineligible loans that later defaulted, resulting in mortgage insurance claims to the Federal Housing Administration, the...

A report from the South Florida Business Journal. "The Related Group proposed a 37-story apartment building with no on-site parking in downtown Miami. There’s an over-supply of condos on the market in downtown Miami and condo sales have slowed during the Covid-19 pandemic, so building apartments is...

Two reports from the Real Deal on Florida. "Ed Brown, former Patrón Spirits CEO, sold his oceanfront Hillsboro Beach mansion at a loss, for $16.5 million. Luxury spec home developer Mark Timothy built the home in 2017, the same year the Browns bought it for $20 million. The Browns aimed high with...