The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Wall Street Journal on Florida. "Ivan Rodriguez leapt at the chance to buy a unit at the Cricket Club, an exclusive bay-front condominium in North Miami. In 2019, he liquidated his 401(k) retirement account to purchase a nearly 1,500-square-foot unit with water views for $190,000....

A report from WFTV in Florida. "Residents in one Orlando condominium complex are fighting back after their condo association board asked each homeowner to pay more than $11,000 for a special assessment fee, due in just 3 months. Owners at the Regency Gardens Condominiums got notices saying their...

A weekend topic starting with the Globe and Mail. "In the early 1960s, only 4 per cent of countries were subject to economic sanctions imposed by either the United States or the United Nations, accounting for less than 4 per cent of global trade. Today, 54 – a quarter of all the countries in the...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Suze Orman uses her money to buy herself some nice things — like a condo in Florida right on the ocean. It’s an idyllic place to live. That is, until the personal finance celebrity recently received an insurance quote for this 2,100-square foot...

A report from Business Insider. "When hopeful sellers call up Eric Peterson, a real-estate broker in Austin, he usually asks them how much they think their home could fetch on the market. Austin was among the cities hit hardest by the pandemic hangover, with local home prices in March down roughly...

A report from the Denver Post in Colorado. "A big jump in new listings and a modest increase in closings helped drive up the number of listings available to buyers in metro Denver during the peak home-selling season, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. A year ago, buyers in metro...

A report from 41 Kansas City. "Despite predictions of lower mortgage rates in 2024, that hasn't happened yet. Realtor Susan Huff of Huff Realty has been selling homes for 30 years. She tells buyers to bite the bullet if they can, because competition is much lower right now than it was during the...

A report from Suburbs 101. "Nationally, home prices are going up, but the Texas housing market is getting hit hard by dropping prices. Some places are seeing double-digit losses. The net loss is quite significant in some metro areas. Where homeowners are losing over $230 per day in equity if they...

A report from the Naples Daily News in Florida. "For Lee County-based Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association, the median closed for houses and condos is only off slightly from $380,000 a year ago to $379,000 now. Sales sank by nearly 3% as its inventory grew by almost 60%, passing the 8,000 mark....

A report from Click Orlando. "Regency Gardens Monthly HOA dues are projected to increase by approximately $900, in addition to flat assessments based on condo size. Jon Epstein, a concerned resident, questioned the feasibility of these assessments for working-class families. Epstein said if this...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "A condominium association in Orlando is proposing a special assessment of up to $22,105 for each owner as part of an effort to fund its reserves as required by state law, and it would be due by the end of July. Residents of the Regency Gardens...

A report from KOLO in Nevada. "Last year, State Farm alone canceled 70,000 policies in California. Denise Bremer, the President of Incline Village Realtors, explains that our proximity makes us the logical next step. 'Because we do border California, they see that we’re forested and say ‘guess...

A report from Fast Company. "On October 12, 2021, in a sprawling desert community just 7 miles southwest of the Las Vegas Strip, Zillow closed a sale on a four-bedroom home at 7456 Grizzly Giant St. Just five days later, Zillow paused its iBuyer program, and on November 2, 2021, it shuttered the...

A report from Moneywise. "Susan Apel and Keith Irwin purchased a four-bedroom house in Lebanon, New Hampshire, 24 years ago — and are now looking to downsize in their golden years. Apel finds it harder to climb up the stairs, while Irwin is tired of shoveling the snow and doing yard work. The...

A report from the Daily Mail on Florida. "The millionaire residents of a gated community that live on a secluded island in Miami say their private paradise has been destroyed, after the city allowed a developer to build a huge 91-foot high, seven story block of condos that now blots out the...

A report from Yahoo Finance. "The Federal Reserve chairman this week doused any hope homebuyers had that mortgage rates would soften anytime soon. Instead, rates jumped above 7% after Jerome Powell said inflation was taking longer to come down to the Fed's intended target, a sign that any rate cuts...

A report from the Mortgage Research Center. "Critics of the 'date the rate' strategy are having their day in the sun. They were right in saying that the strategy could be harder to implement than it sounds. Realtor.com offered solid reminders: Rates may not go down. Rates might fall, but not enough...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "After two lucrative summers, Jeanette Robinson said seasonal reservations are trickling in much slower for her Falmouth bed and breakfast. 'The rental market is totally flooded,' said Robinson, who has owned the Frederick William House for 20 years....

A report from WPTV. "The rising cost of home insurance for one Palm Beach County condo is a story that seems to playing out at condos all across Florida. 'It's shocking to watch in a few years to go from under $100,000 to pushing a half a million,' Christina Auer said. That fast increase in just a...

A report from Market Watch. "It’s a tough time for the real-estate industry, which faces a significant test in the form of higher mortgage rates, Dave Liniger, the real-estate tycoon, founder and chairman of Denver-based real-estate giant Re/Max, told MarketWatch. Over the past few years, the same...