The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from Kieth Jurow at Market Watch. "Remember all those sub-prime mortgages that blew up in 2007 and popped the housing bubble? The widely-held consensus is that millions of them were foreclosed as housing markets cratered. Since then, the remaining ones have been quietly disappearing as...

A report from Xinhua on Sweden. "For the first time in ten years, several construction companies have been forced to buy newly constructed apartments that failed to find buyers. 'It is a worse crisis now than ten years ago,' said Anders Lago, federal chairman of Swedish housing association HSB."...

A report from the Mercury News in California. "Michelle Ronco, senior product marketing manager with MLS subsidiary Aculist, put Silicon Valley’s housing market in perspective for local Realtors at a meeting in Los Gatos. Santa Clara County’s sales volume peaked in May and the median sales price...

A report from Forbes on New York. "Though New York already has a 'mansion tax'—a 1% tax on homes over $1 million—support for the pied-a-terre bill is gaining. 'Because many of these expensive properties are effective ways for foreign buyers to park capital in a stable region, they are often viewed...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "'Rising interest rates can affect what a borrower can qualify for and the maximum purchase price or loan amount. It would mean higher monthly mortgage payments,' explained Alan Barbic, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtor. 'Higher...

A report from Reuters on Australia. "As property prices rocketed toward the heady peak of Sydney's real-estate boom in 2017, the bulldozers came to Epping. But prices are now in freefall, and the suburb is being refashioned once more, this time into the epicentre of a bust. As buyers disappear and...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Sales of previously owned homes fell in January, although a decline in home prices and mortgage rates could bode well for a pickup this spring. January marked the third consecutive month of declining sales, and last month’s 4.94 million home sales were the...

A report from the Buffalo News in New York. "Rochester developer Robert C. Morgan's problems in Buffalo just got worse. The special loan servicer handling the $27.8 million commercial mortgage on the Raintree Island Apartments in the City of Tonawanda this week declared the loan in default. The...

A report from the California used house salespeople. "Housing demand in California remained subdued for the ninth consecutive month in January as economic and market uncertainties sent home sales to their lowest level since April 2008, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) said...

A topic starting with part of an email I received this morning. "Ben, I’m just another good hard working young man in the oilfield and I’m desperate to escape worthless crooked landlords. I NEED a home for me and my wife and the kids I’d like to have. I leave houses cleaner than when I move in, pay...

A report from KGW 8 on Oregon. "For the first time in seven years Portland home prices have gone down, according to new numbers from Regional Multiple Listing Service. The apartment building boom has left many units vacant across the metro area. Now, owners are giving incentives for people to move...

Two reports from the Australian Financial Review. "It is every homebuyer's dream to be mortgage-free and Sydney developer Allam Property Group is making that possible for some - for twelve months. It will pay a whole year of mortgage for new homebuyers at 80 per cent of purchase price at its Sydney...

A report from the Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. "Last year alone, 2,810 new housing units were completed in the area known as Greater Center City — the largest number since 2002, according to a report. The CCD report showed that the market might be slowing. This isn’t necessarily a...

A report from the New York Post. "Don’t believe the brochures. A Billionaire’s Row apartment can be a terrible investment. Roughly 16,000 apartments were bought and resold in New York from 2014 through 2018. Of those, 1,295 homes — 7.7 percent — sold at an outright loss. But a whopping 39 percent...

A report from Fortune Magazine. "When Upper East Siders Adelle and Robert Rathe boarded a flight to Saint Martin in mid-January, they left behind a typically cold New York day. By the time they return from their resort getaway in mid-April, the trees in Central Park will have started to bloom."...

A report from Bloomberg on Iceland. "The spacious entrance to Hildigunnur Haraldsdottir’s building in downtown Reykjavik is paved with marble from Prague and decorated with stained glass artwork by a famous local artist. The flat is one of 38 that she designed for her company. Only 20 of them have...

A weekend topic starting with RE Business Online. "The multifamily sector is like the Energizer Bunny, says Jamie Woodwell, vice president of commercial and multifamily research for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Although 600,000 units are currently under construction nationally —...

A report from the Santa Fe New Mexican. "At the beginning of 2019, there were 1,052 homes available in the Santa Fe multiple-listing service area, which includes nearby cities such as Los Alamos and Pecos. Britt Klein of Sotheby’s International Realty, said she works with sellers to come up with a...

A report from the Globe and Mail in Canada. "Michael Bublé has owned this 7,100 sq. ft. West Vancouver mansion with ocean and city views for 11 years. The house was a year old when he bought it in 2007 for $4,550,000. Asking price: $6.998 million. Selling price: $5.180 million. The sale reflects a...

A report from the Sacramento Bee in California. "Sacramento County total home sales fell 22.5 percent year-over-year in December, the lowest for the month since 2007. In the four-county region, the largest decline in the year-over-year median sales price for neighborhoods with more than 10 homes...