The Housing Bubble Blog

Two reports from the Wall Street Journal. "A flock of vulture investors is circling China: large money managers including Blackstone Group, Lone Star Funds and Oaktree Capital as well as Bain Capital. In the past few years global investment firms have invested more than $3 billion in nonperforming...

A report from Knowledge Wharton. "Susan Wachter, Wharton professor of real estate and finance, noted that at the top end, housing prices have moderated and are decreasing in major markets like New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and said that was 'due to a supply response to price...

A weekend topic starting with Market Place. "The following is an excerpt from Christopher Knowlton’s new book, 'Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and how it brought on the Great Depression.' 'My first impression, as I wandered out into the blazing sunlight of that bedlam that was...

A report from Point 2 Homes on Texas. ""Q: Would you recommend buying or renting in the largest cities in Texas this year? Shannon Cornelison-Brown Assistant Professor of Accounting Austin College: 'In the largest cities in Texas, investor funds have caused a large supply of apartment options. An...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The St. George Metropolitan Area has ranked among the fastest-growing areas in the country for decades. But now, there are signs of a slowdown. Construction is down substantially from its peak in 2016 and 2017. But Vardell Curtis, CEO of the...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Mary Babinski, a senior loan officer with Motto Mortgage Champions in Trinity, Fla., recently wrote a 30-year loan for a retiree buying a home in New Port Richey. He had no problem qualifying, but he was surprised he could nonetheless. Why the amazement?...

A report from Better Dwelling in Canada. "Canada’s recent real estate price boom is creating a lot of incentive for development. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data show housing under construction jumped in Q4 2019. The number of homes currently being built across Canada is now at the...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Builders are on track to finish more new apartments in 2020 than in any year since the 1980s, a new study shows, with developers across the U.S. chasing after the more affluent tenants. An additional 371,000 new rental units are expected to hit the U.S....

A report from the Dallas Morning News in Texas. "A lender that provided more than $388 million to finance one of Plano’s biggest real estate developments has filed to foreclose on the project. Beal Bank put up the debt for the redevelopment of the Campus at Legacy West in Plano. For more than three...

A report from the Australian Financial Review. "Dixon Advisory's ailing US property fund has told investors it is writing down the value of its assets by up to 30 per cent, blaming a weak New York real estate market, development losses and a recent reversal of favourable currency moves. The US...

A report from the San Francisco Chronicle in California. "The Bay Area just said goodbye to a decade when real estate prices soared to astronomical heights. The 2010s were marked by $1 million fixer-uppers and bidding wars, and many homeowners saw their property values double. Will the housing...

A weekend topic starting with Catalyst. "There’s an apparent contradiction in urban America’s real estate market. On one hand there’s a general housing shortage, namely of affordable workforce housing. But there are lots of luxury condos that get built and stay empty, unable to sell at their...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "According to an ATTOM Data Solutions report buying a home is more affordable than renting in 53% of the U.S. housing markets. 'The current market here in Bakersfield for renters is a little difficult. There is a high demand for rental homes...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "In mid-November, bond investors got an unwelcome surprise from one of the main ratings firms in a hot corner of the bond market: About 25% of the bonds that it had rated were likely to be downgraded. Several days later, after calls poured in from confused...

A report from Multi-Housing News. "'It’s a great time to be a quality sponsor,' Stephen Rosenberg, CEO of Greystone, told Multi-Housing News. 'Right now, the market is extremely frothy and awash with capital. While Greystone hasn’t loosened its underwriting standards to compete, there is a concern...

A report from Hawaii News Now. "While December went out with a bang, the median sales price for a single-family home in 2019 ― $789,000 ― was down .1% from the year before. It was the first decline in the annual median sales price on Oahu since 2012." The Bothell-Kenmore Reporter in Washington....

A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. "Neal Baer, the pediatrician-turned-TV-writer is asking less than he paid for his Brentwood home. The charming Midcentury just hit the market for $3.35 million — or $150,000 shy of what he bought it for five years ago, records show. It’s not his...

A report from the East Hampton Star in New York. "There is already evidence of a real estate slump in the United States. The average price of luxury home sales is falling, as is the number of sales. Long Island specifically is suffering as sales decrease and homes lose value. This is rather...

A report from The Real Deal on New York. "It was one of many signs last year that a growing number of New York City condo developers are on borrowed time. Bank OZK had committed $108 million to finance a 92-unit condo building at 615 10th Avenue back in 2015. But last April, with the project...

A report from KTVU in California. "Bay Area home prices as well as those in other California instances, may have reached a temporary limit on what people can and are willing to pay. 'What I've noticed in Santa Clara County along last year in the last twelve months, you know, prices came down about...