The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from Star Metro Vancouver in Canada. "After years of dramatic increases, Vancouver’s most expensive homes are plummeting in value — but experts say affordability is still out of reach. Single-detached family homes will plunge by five to 10 per cent this year in areas such as the North...

A report from the New York Times. "Good news, New Yorkers: You may no longer need $1 million to buy a middle-of-the-road Manhattan apartment. But just barely. Lest the financially average among us get too excited, the median price only fell to $999,000, dipping below $1 million in the last quarter...

A report from Home Town Station on California. "With housing prices starting to 'stall,' interest rates going up and the stock market 'going crazy,' Rich Szerman of Alta Realty Group believes now is the time to take action in order to prevent a real estate market crash similar to that of 2008, and...

A report from the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. "The median value of a house in Sydney dropped last year by 10 per cent or a touch over $100,000 over the past year. In Melbourne, house values are down by 9.1 per cent or $75,000. Both cities saw values drop by more than 4 per cent through the...

A report from the Real Deal on New York. "When sales launched at the Baltic in Park Slope back in 2016, the condo building had the market to itself. But then things started softening, and more nearby developments started launching sales. By the end of 2018, there were about 1,000 condo and rental...

A report from the Daily Telegraph in Australia. "It has been a catastrophic summer for the Sydney housing market. New housing data revealed prices fell by a whopping 1.8 per cent over December, an acceleration of the 1.4 per cent drop recorded over November. It meant the total fall in prices for...

What's your end of the year housing bubble predictions? Six months ago: "More housing supply comes on the market. Boomers realize they are broke and need that influx of cash, but prices will stay the same or dip slightly. Not gonna give it away." "No major changes in 2018 as it will be Q1 2019...

A report from the Seattle Times in Washington. "After having the hottest housing market in the country for two years, Seattle home sales have cooled. This is annoying news for people who paid way over the asking price for their house purchases at the height of the market a few months ago. It is...

A report from the Santa Cruz Sentinel in California. "Single-family home sales in Santa Cruz County dropped in November — from 183 a year ago to 134 — and the median price, the midpoint of what sold, was $911,250, according to Gary Gangnes of Real Options Realty, who tracks the numbers. Paul...

A report from The Herald in Washington. "For the 23 Washington counties that the listing service tracks, inventory rose to 15,830 in November, compared to 11,193 a year earlier. Say the words 'housing bubble' and George Moorhead, owner of Bentley Properties in Bothell is likely to crack a smile....

A report from the Mercury News in California. "The median sale price for an existing house, excluding condos, in Santa Clara County was $1.15 million in November, down 2 percent from $1.175 million at the same time last year, according to CoreLogic. It’s the first time prices have dropped in the...

A report from the Denver Post in Colorado. "In the second half of this year, the housing market here and in other cities has cooled, with sales slumping and the inventory of unsold homes rising. And while annual price gains are still solid, the median price of homes sold continues to drop from the...

A report from Star Vancouver in Canada. "After years of skyrocketing values in Vancouver, owners of homes worth millions will see the value of their properties drop by about 10 per cent this year, representing about $10 billion in total lost equity." "That’s according to Paul Sullivan, a partner at...

A report from the Wall Street Journal on New York. "After slowing for several years, the Manhattan apartment market dropped to a new low in 2018, as co-op and condominium sales fell to the lowest level since the economy last bottomed out in 2009. In an unusual shift for the typically optimistic...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The residential property market in Palo Alto has cooled down meaningfully in the last six months or so. The median home price of all homes sold in Palo Alto has dropped to $2.79 million in the second half of 2018, 10 percent lower than $3.1 million...

A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. "Southern California home sales plunged 12% in November from a year earlier, while prices rose at the slowest pace in three years amid a broad cooling in the housing market." "The median — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half...

A report from the Seattle Times in Washington. "Seattle for nearly two years led the 20-city S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index in annual price growth for homes, but falling prices here in recent months have now dropped it to fourth place. The Seattle metro area’s year-over-year increase was 7.3...

A report from the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. "Even in a hot housing market like Tampa Bay's, a bit of divine intervention never hurts. Sellers, meet St. Joseph. Legend has it that burying a statue of St. Joseph near a home for sale can quickly attract a buyer. Hence, a banner business in 'St....

A report from the Berkshire Edge in Massachusetts. "Employment is strong; we can all agree on that—or can we? I suppose it depends on whom you ask. If you ask the average person, they’re going to say yes. If you ask someone in the mortgage industry, they might have to force a fake smile." "In the...

A report from the Los Angeles Daily News in California. "The housing market continues to be slightly friendlier for buyers in the San Fernando Valley compared to earlier in the year as more homes come on the market and sales slow down, according to the Southland Regional Association of Realtors....