The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from CNBC. "A Federal Reserve economist says the current housing backdrop is similar to recent economic slumps, with several metrics 'consistent with the possibility of a late 2019 or early 2020 recession. 'Data on single-family home sales through May 2019 confirm that housing markets in...

A report from the Times Free Press in Tennessee. "The median rent quoted for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Chattanooga jumped 9.9% in the past year as housing prices continued to outstrip the gains in income. But with an abundance of apartment units coming on the Chattanooga market, especially...

A report from the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. "Earlier this year, the VA loan industry celebrated its 24 millionth loan. Chris Birk, a spokesman for Veterans United, the nation’s largest VA lender, said the program is as popular now as it’s ever been. Before the 2007-08 housing market crash, VA...

A report from the Daily Telegraph on Australia. "Apartment owners in havens for high-rise units are realising their properties are worth less than they paid for them as rampant oversupply and falling demand send real estate values plummeting. Recent sales figures indicated multiple unit owners made...

A report from the News Gazette in Illinois. "Although investors in private student housing have cited concerns about vacancy rates and overbuilding in the Champaign-Urbana market, even more substantial student housing complexes are slated to open this fall. 'The overall occupancy rate in the area...

A report from the Wall Street Journal on Florida. "After being kidnapped seven years ago, Juerg Degenmann decided to move his family from Venezuela to Miami for increased security. He and his wife paid $1.85 million in 2013 for a waterfront townhome in Sunny Isles Beach. He was unpleasantly...

A report from Think Realty on Florida. "While flipping properties may not be the right strategy in the southern part of the state, in central Florida, Billy Ross is busy flipping and wholesaling properties in the greater Orlando metro area. If Ross sees any risk at all in his market, it’s in owning...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Wu Xiaohui was shopping in New York. For buildings. 'He didn’t really care — he’d point out the window and say, ’That one!’ recalls a real estate executive. These days Wu is in jail in China. Anbang, meanwhile, is under the control of the Chinese...

A report from Curbed Los Angeles in California. "CoreLogic analyst Anrew LePage suggests the slower rate of price growth may have a lot to do with the fact that home values are entering uncharted territory. Many buyers, says LePage, may be waiting for a drop in prices before purchasing; others may...

A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. "The Southern California median home price barely budged in May, a sign that the housing market remains soft despite a sustained drop in borrowing costs. In May, there were nearly 12% more homes for sale than a year earlier, according to Zillow....

A report from National Real Estate Business. "Lenders are understandably exercising caution when it comes to financing multifamily housing development projects, says Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics, which tracks construction starts across commercial real estate....

A report from the Sacramento Bee in California. "Homes values declined last month across the country and in many large California metro areas, according to Zillow. The Sacramento region was no exception. 'In general, Sacramento is slowing down but not as dramatically as San Jose and San Francisco,'...

A report from Global News in Canada. "Back in 2016, Vancouver’s white-hot real estate market looked as if it would never cool down. Three years later, industry experts say times have changed. 'Prices now are back to where they were around, say, mid-2015,' Brendon Ogmundson of the B.C. Real Estate...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Americans purchased fewer new homes in May. Purchases of newly built single-family homes decreased 7.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 626,000 in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. It was the slowest pace of sales since December. The monthly...

A report from Market Watch. "The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city index was unchanged in April compared to March on a seasonally adjusted basis, and was 2.5% higher compared to a year ago. That was the 13th straight month in which annual growth slowed, and the lowest pace of annual price...

A press release from Zillow. "It has been widely acknowledged that the aggressive pace of home value growth over the past several years was unsustainable. Buyers simply couldn't keep up, and home prices are correcting. Inventory was up year-over-year in roughly two thirds (23/35) of the nation's...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Cerberus Capital Management LP is bringing back a type of mortgage bond that went extinct during the financial crisis. A unit of the private-equity firm issued bonds Friday backed entirely by home-equity lines of credit. The $174 million issuance received a...

A weekend topic starting with Domain News in Australia. "Owners in Melbourne’s high-rise apartment towers are selling properties at a loss amid a tarnished reputation thanks to wild parties and crime. Some city and Docklands buildings are tarnished thanks to the sheer volume of short-stay...

A report from the Oregonian. "Wise homebuyers look for discounts on properties they value. What causes a sale price to cascade? An anxious seller or an asking price that's too high and no one's biting. In this week's real estate gallery, we look at 15 Portland homes that have undergone a price cut...

A report from the Wall Street Journal on New York. "Property investors have spent billions of dollars on apartment buildings for what has been one of the most reliably profitable bets in New York City real estate: converting rent-regulated apartments to market-rate units. But New York’s new rent...