The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Seattle Times in Washington. "Every year, the Urban Land Institute and the consultancy PwC publish their Emerging Trends in Real Estate report. 'As this economic cycle entered the history books as the longest in U.S. history, the level of confidence in the real-estate industry has...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "We are entering new territory when it comes to home sales by the Bay East Association of Realtors. According to data from 34 East Bay cities, many of them had more homes on the market in August when compared to last August. But 21 of them saw prices...

A report from the Real Deal. "Three years later, Tom Barrack has buyer’s remorse. As his firm, Colony Capital, embarks on a $325 million venture into digital infrastructure, it first needs to offload much of its real estate portfolio from its disastrous merger with NorthStar Realty Finance Corp....

A report from the Miami Herald in Florida. "In the wake of the Great Recession, when traditional development loans were in short supply, local condo developers shifted financing onto buyers by requiring 50% deposits. Now, more and more developers are lowering the requirements, sometimes to as...

A report from the Oregonian. "It appears a relatively good time to be a homebuyer in the Portland area. Mortgage rates have fallen to near-record lows, and more houses are listed for sale. Bidding wars are mostly a thing of the past. But buyers nonetheless are sitting on the sidelines, brokers say....

A report from the Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. "Sales in Philadelphia, declined 15.4% from the year before, though they remain much higher than the historic average. 'I haven’t noticed any acute response or panic from the market — no one has called me and said, ‘I need to sell right now...

A weekend topic starting with the Times of London. "Unaffordable property prices are down to Britain’s 'broken housing market,'to use Sajid Javid’s words as housing secretary in 2017. The chancellor was referring to the undersupply of new homes, and he was not alone in his analysis. Most people...

A report from the East Bay Times in California. "Across the Bay Area, from the Berkeley hills to the Santa Cruz Mountains, insurance companies are declining to renew policies that include fire coverage — sending families scrambling in the heart of fire season to lock down alternatives that tend to...

A report from the Globe and Mail. "Navin Seepaul is a 29-year-old single dad who makes $30,000 a year as a barber. He owns a $1-million house in Brampton, a sprawling suburb northwest of Toronto. Each month, the payments on his roughly $700,000 mortgage are $4,300. On top of that, he has $24,000 in...

A report from Living Snoqualmie in Washington. "The Chief Economist for Windermere Real Estate, Matthew Gardner, made a stop in the Snoqualmie Valley. Gardner said the Puget Sound real estate market is ‘well and above’ many other U.S. markets, but the currently it is a ‘more rationale housing...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Taylor Denchfield says he has been flipping homes since he was 17 (he is now 25). Data from the first three months of this year suggests the flipping market has already begun to cool off. 'We're certainly reaching the top of the bubble,' said...

A report from the Palm Beach Post in Florida. "South Florida is the nation’s capital of mortgage fraud, CoreLogic says. The metro area of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties had the highest levels of home-loan chicanery in the nation during the second quarter of 2019. The New York metro...

A report from the Albert Lea Tribune in Canada. "Welcome to Tiger Hills. Since the properties went into tax forfeiture, two have sold. Twenty-nine lots — just over 40% of the lots in Tiger Hills — have yet to be sold out of forfeiture. Judy and Richard Carlson purchased their Tiger Hills property...

A report from CNBC. "Low rates, combined with more moderate home prices and more desperate sellers, are all bringing buyers back to the market. Dallas real estate agent Kelley McMahon said she is seeing a stronger fall but a pickier buyer. 'I feel like there’s more inventory than there has been in...

A report from Politico. "The U.S. housing finance system is worse off today than it was on the cusp of the 2008 financial crisis, Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials warned on Tuesday. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-controlled enterprises that stand behind half...

A report from Bloomberg. "The trustee representing bondholders who invested $250 million in a luxury dorm at the University of Oklahoma accused the college Monday of breaking a promise to lease retail and parking spaces over the 40-year term of the bonds. Bonds issued in 2017 to finance the...

A report from CNBC. "Mortgage rates are around the lowest in three years, but buyers are suddenly much more cautious about purchasing a home. Competition is cooling, and consequently sellers can no longer command any price. At an open house in Dallas on Sunday, a few dozen potential buyers toured a...

A report from the New York Times. "The US luxury condominium and apartment market is in the midst of an amenities war. Prices for ultra-luxury condos in New York have been declining since peaking in 2016, according to StreetEasy. The site found a mismatch between decisions by developers to keep...

A report from the Sun Sentinel in Florida. "Homeowners: Had enough of those pesky, disruptive storm seasons? Is a new job forcing you to relocate to another region of the country? Two national real estate firms are descending into South Florida to help make expedited sales happen. But what...

An editorial in the Times of London by Philip Aldrick. "In a Blackrock Investment Institute paper last month, three top central bankers argued for 'magic money tree' policies to respond to the next downturn. Under their 'monetary-financed fiscal facility,'central banks print money that the...