The Housing Bubble Blog

A weekend topic starting with the Globe and Mail. "With money so cheap and home appreciation so high, home ownership has taken on a whole new meaning. A key feature is that it’s altered our relationship to mortgage debt. The days of the mortgage burning party are long over, replaced with an...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The Spokane Association of Realtors’ December snapshot shows sales down 7.2% compared to this time last year. So, why are some houses sitting on the market longer than usual? 'A lot of times when they are sitting on the market, they are priced too...

A report from the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. "Real estate economist Ken H. Johnson said he’s concerned by the rhetoric the real estate industry is pushing about rising home prices. 'It’s leading individuals to think ‘OK, everything’s rosy. Housing prices only grow to the sky,' Johnson said. But...

A report from the Sun Sentinel in Florida. "In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the folks who want a private 30-story condo built on a prized piece of taxpayer-owned beach in Hollywood went home without a deal. The project had a fan in longtime Hollywood resident Jack Izzo. 'You’re looking at a...

A report from Yahoo Finance. "DLB Financial Services CEO Debbie Boyd joins Yahoo Finance. 'I'm a mortgage broker by trade. So I do believe the Fed is going to raise rates. We've already seen almost a point raise since the end of December...This is the new normal. And what I think people need to...

A report from the Dallas Business Journal. "As of year’s end, the home price index for the Fort Worth and Arlington areas was about 215, up from about 177 in Q4 2020. Prior to last year, the index had never experienced double-digit percentage growth. Joshua Roberson, lead data analyst for the Texas...

A report from the Daily Mail. "Anyone who has tried to sell their home recently knows the property market can be brutal. And it seems that’s true whether you’re selling an apartment in Hampshire or a mega-mansion in Hollywood. There is no shortage of famous faces who have had to slash their asking...

A weekend topic starting with Yahoo Finance. "Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan joins Yahoo Finance Live. 'We saw something on the order of 18% increase in house prices in 2021 following about a 15% increase in 2020. Our estimate is that in 2022, the increase in prices will be somewhere in the...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Redfin economists expect the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to continue to rise steadily to 3.9% over the course of the year. For the four-week period ending January 30, the monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price was up 23% from a year...

A report from Mortgage News Daily. "Locks are certainly not repeating 2021 levels for January, with initial anecdotal pipeline numbers down 30-40 percent. Are you reducing costs accordingly? When the residential lending market is good, owners think they’re the smartest guys in the room, and in the...

A report from Bloomberg. "Homebuilders are headed for their sharpest monthly nosedive since March 2020 as the stocks get pummeled by fears of rising rates. 'It’s a headwind to everybody across the sector, nobody is completely immune,' analyst Rafe Jadrosich, who covers homebuilders and building...

A report from NBC News. "'As we move through the year, we will see slower sales activity,' said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. 'Intense multiple-offer days are over… people can take their time. I think for the home sellers, they need to realize the days of...

A report from the Florida Times Union. "Alex Sifakis, president of JWB Real Estate Capital in Jacksonville, said his company now manages 4,300 single-family rental properties in the city and owns another 400 of them. From the investment side, he said he simply can’t keep up with investors wanting...

A weekend topic starting with the Messenger Inquirer in Kentucky. "In recent months, CNN, the Washington Post and several other national media outlets have asked if America is heading into another housing bubble. The general conclusion has been that economists say we’re not. But they said the same...

A weekend topic starting with Reuters. "The great unwinding of bloated central bank balance sheets could start as soon as next week. While investors have been in thrall to the U.S. Federal Reserve's hawkish anti-inflation twist in 2022, the Bank of England is widely expected to hike UK interest...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "After five months on the market, Leonardo DiCaprio has found a buyer for his Los Feliz home. The actor listed the property for $5.75 million in August, but after a series of removals and re-listings, $4.895 million is what DiCaprio has landed on....

A report from DS News. "More than 77% of homebuyers and sellers believe there’s a housing price bubble in the area where they live, according to Redfin. 'What we’re going through right now is closer to a ripple in the water than a bubble,' said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. 'There’s a...

A report from Spectrum 1 on Massachusetts. "'Landlords have gotten hosed the whole time here,' said Mike DeLuca, who owns 35 rental units in Worcester. 'It’s all about of the tenants. I’ll tell you right now, these landlords are never going to see the money. Never, ever, ever.'" From Bisnow....

A report from Market Watch. "Airbnb had been on track for its biggest drop ever, falling more than 13% in intradrading and becoming the worst performer in the Nasdaq 100, according to Dow Jones and FactSet. Its shares have never declined more than 9.1% in a single session, with that record set...

A report from Candy's Dirt in Dallas. "We have luxury homes sitting on the market at 400 and 500 days. We have millions of dollars in price reductions on some of these. It’s time to make some decisions and face reality. Sure, some deals have fallen through. Sellers are difficult and overvalue their...