The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from San Diego News in California. "MARKET REPORT (single family). 92115 College Area: The median November home price dropped 7% from October to $814,125. 92119 San Carlos: The median November sales price dropped 5% from October to an adjusted amount of $880,000. 92120 Allied Gardens, Del...

A press release from the Coronado Times. "Record home price appreciation in the last few years has pushed tappable home equity to new heights! According to Black Knight, the third quarter of 2021 saw a nearly $250 billion increase in tappable equity—a record. Did you know you can use a cash-out...

A report from the News Press in Florida. "To date, the number of new listings that came to the Bonita Springs and Estero markets in 2021 was 270, which was higher than the 193 total listings that came to market during the same time period during 2020. 'While it is still a competitive landscape,...

A weekend topic starting with my comment this week. "We really need to stop playing along with the globalist scum media narratives." From Bloomberg. "On a technical basis, Bitcoin is seen by some analysts as being caught in a no man’s land between different moving averages. The coin might be...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Christian Chapman, a former underwriter at Better.com, has worked in the mortgage business for almost 20 years and has been laid off by three other mortgage companies in the past. However, none of his previous firings were as 'obtuse and...

A report from the Daily Mail. "In his three-minute call, Vishal Garg CEO of mortgage lender Better.com Vishal Garg, said that the 'market has changed' - meaning savage cuts to the $7 billion company's workforce were needed to avert disaster. Two others said that Garg warned next year would be a...

A report from the New York Post. "Better.com became a pandemic darling as city dwellers sought to flee to greener and larger spaces in the suburbs, fueling a boom in the housing market and associated lenders. CEO Vishal Garg laid off some 900 employees on a Zoom call. The 43-year-old said that the...

A report from the Oklahoman. "Prices for new homes are outpacing appraisals, busting purchase contracts if buyers and builders can't come to terms and fill the financing gap. Metro-area Realtors discussion mentioned appraised values for new homes falling short of what lenders required to make...

A report from the LA Daily News in California. "Rampant housing inflation means the federal government will now back almost million-dollar mortgages — including deals in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Note that mortgages made for vacation homes and second residences can be bought by Fannie Mae...

A report from the San Francisco Chronicle in California. " "As San Francisco approached the critical December shopping month, instead of holiday lights and Santa Claus decorations, dozens of downtown retailers greeted shoppers with plywood-encased storefronts and armed guards in the wake of mass...

A weekend topic starting with a press release. "ATTOM released its third-quarter 2021 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report, which shows that 3.59 million mortgages secured by residential property (1 to 4 units) were originated in the third quarter of 2021 in the United States. It...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Courtney White and her fiancé saw one house after another go under contract before even having a chance to see the property during their house hunt earlier this year. After finally buying a house in Durant, Oklahoma, White says she feels like she...

A report from the Oklahoman. "Landon Whitt, CEO of OKCReal, said he's seen what may be some cooling in investor demand. 'I have had three different investors get cold feet after placing an offer, and pull out of the deal, just in the last two weeks, all due to concerns about unstable returns,'...

A report from the High Point Enterprise in North Carolina. "While many real estate markets are still booming, some are seeing a recent slowdown in home sales. Insurify named Greensboro-High Point as No. 3 on the list of the nation's top cooling housing markets, with a drop of 11.76% in the median...

A report from Dirt on California. "A couple months ago, a Sunset Strip house sold for $14 million - exactly $5 million less than the sellers had paid in 2014. Months before that, another nearby house sold for $12.5 million, a $7.3 million loss for the seller. These aren’t anomalies, either —...

A report from The City on New York. "Christine Fife was 'speechless with joy' when she won her foreclosure case in January 2020, she recalled, believing her decade under threat of foreclosure in her Upper West Side condo was finally over. Now, though, Fife is once again facing the seizure of the...

A weekend topic starting with two reports from ERR. "Estonian construction volumes exceeded pre-crisis levels in the previous quarter with the production value of construction enterprises in Estonia and abroad increasing 15 percent year-on-year. Developers say that as long as demand keeps up,...

A weekend topic starting with Quartz. "The press has noted that more than 6 million homes may be sold this year, more than any time since 2006. For those familiar with real estate busts, this may be an ominous sign. Economists argue his time is different. Tight supply and rising demand—not lax...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "'Our housing market is showing signs of stabilizing,' says Dave Walsh, the 2021 president of the California Association of Realtors. Walsh says we now have a median selling price in Santa Clara County of $1,625,000—down slightly from the $1,750,000...

A report from Bloomberg on New York. "Manhattan luxury-home sales had their best week of the year. The second-priciest home to find a buyer was a limestone mansion owned by financier Phil Falcone, at 22 E. 67th St., on the market since March 2018 and most recently listed at $27.5 million. A...