The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from 8 News Now in Nevada. "8 News Now spoke with market experts who told us the public health crisis caused a lot of transactions to fall through, but buyers can now actually get a new home faster. Weekly sales dropped substantially as canceled transactions spiked from 28% to 79%. Those...

A report from Go Banking Rates. "The pandemic has caused people to slow down and rethink their approach to the homebuying process, said Rebecca Brooksher, an agent with Warburg Realty. 'Everyone has a new perspective, so you are less likely to find the pushy broker or the buyer who will overbid...

A report from the Canadian Press. "Canadians looking to borrow money for a home purchase a home are in for some extra challenges after the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation announced changes to its lending standards on Thursday. The country’s national housing agency is increasing the...

A report from the Dallas Morning News in Texas. "Fear of a deadly contagion was great enough to prompt authorities to spare residents the threat of eviction, but it didn’t stop some people from losing their homes. Mike Mullen’s $9 million mansion in Old Preston Hollow is fashioned like a French...

A report from the Sonoma County Gazette in California. "Some communities have established Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) Exclusion Zones to keep housing and their neighborhoods protected from commercial use of residential homes, while others have tried and failed to to establish Exclusion Zones....

A report from the Seattle Times in Washington. "Stay-at-home orders kept many potential homebuyers and sellers out of the market in April, sending prices in King County tumbling in May for the second month in a row. In King County, median prices fell 4% year-over-year, to $672,000, according to new...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Experts say there could be a foreclosure wave next year as companies go out of business 'and those jobs don’t come back,' said Chad Van Horn, a Fort Lauderdale-based bankruptcy attorney. 'I have clients we are filing motions to [postpone] the...

A report the Globe and Mail in Canada. "Some properties are drawing multiple offers and selling at a premium to the asking price. Others are sitting longer or selling below asking – even in sought-after neighbourhoods such as High Park and Riverdale. Jeffrey Wagman of Forest Hill Real Estate Inc....

A report from CNBC on New York. "The number of real estate contracts signed for Manhattan apartments plunged 84% in May compared with last year. The pain in Manhattan real estate will be felt most at the top — where an oversupply of pricey new condo towers and penthouses were already weighing on...

A report from the Commercial Observer. "If you thought it was bad now, well, it could get a lot worse. Scores of apartments could be empty as thousands of renters face evictions after losing their jobs and as millennials in pricey spots like New York and San Francisco flee in search of cheaper...

A report from CBC in Canada. "When the pandemic hit Ontario, Kristina Barybina's income as a real estate agent dried up and she knew the writing was on the wall — she'd have to sell her own house. She also knew there'd be a penalty for getting out of her five-year mortgage with TD Bank early — she...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "When William Mark decided to get back into investing after the 2008 financial crisis, he looked past stocks and bonds. Needing to play catch-up with his retirement portfolio, the piping engineer decided to bet on a complicated product he hoped would deliver...

A report from the San Francisco Chronicle in California. "The cost of renting an apartment in the Bay Area plummeted in May, as layoffs and the increased flexibility of working from home drove a double-digit drop in some of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. Rents for a one-bedroom...

A weekend topic starting with UCLA Anderson. "Given that home equity typically represents a serious chunk of a household’s net worth, the stakes are highly consequential when contemplating selling. While some decisions to sell are driven more by non-economic factors (a job relocation, for example),...

A report from Mortgage Professional America. "A new study by Clever Real Estate surveyed homeowners, renters, and prospective buyers to get a sense of their financial situation, and their plans to sell or buy. The findings suggest that the economic downturn will be longer, and maybe deeper, than...

A report from Toronto Life in Canada. "When the pandemic hit, Christine Morra was forced to shut down her Blue Mountain Airbnb rental. We spoke to her about adjusting to the new normal. 'In 2017, we bought a two-bedroom condo near our place in Blue Mountain. We paid in the mid-$400,000s and planned...

A report from Forbes on New York. "Landlords in New York City and across the country are offering more flexible rental options in response to demand from renters facing unclear economic futures. The number of listings for short-term or month-to-month leases jumped 70% and the share of furnished...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Founded in 2017 by CEO Yifan Zhang and cofounder Adam Stelle after she realized she could cover her mortgage by renting a room in her Seattle house on Airbnb, Loftium was expanding rapidly in the months before the pandemic. It leased roughly 700...

A report from Loudoun Now in Virginia. "It’s anything but a typical housing market in Loudoun County. Ashley Smith, of Atlantic Coast Mortgage, has been in the industry for 18 years and just had her biggest month ever in April, closing $23 million in loans. About 60 percent of her business, she...

A report from the Vancouver Sun in Canada. "The advertised rent for a two-bedroom apartment has plunged by 15 per cent in the city of Vancouver, one of the biggest drops in Canada, as COVID-19 makes its bewildering way through the economy. The average rent demanded for a two-bedroom apartment in...