The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from Fast Company. "When Zillow announced Tuesday that it was shutting down its algorithm-fueled home-flipping operation, few in Phoenix were likely surprised. Phoenix area real estate agent Greg Corbett had a hunch that the companies’ computer-assisted buying activity was playing the...

A report from 12 News in Arizona. "'The market started to cool and Zillow missed the off-ramp,' said Mike DelPrete, a real estate analyst. iBuyers are responsible for around 10 percent of all listings in the Phoneix market. One of the biggest iBuyers, Zillow, is selling many of those homes for a...

A report from Market Watch. "KeyBanc analyst Edward Yruma completed an analysis of 650 homes in Zillow’s inventory, or about one-fifth of the homes owned, and found that 66% are currently listed below the purchase price at an average discount of 4.5%. Of the 650 homes Yruma analyzed, the cities in...

A report from the Phoenix Business Journal in Arizona. "A former Coolidge real estate agent faces decades in prison after being convicted this month in a scheme that emptied a family friend’s savings of $185,000 amid promises to help the victim become a successful real estate investor. A federal...

A report from the Aspen Times in Colorado. "I met a colleague of mine at an Aspen coffee shop earlier this week. We talked about the recent shift from the non-stop activity for the second summer in a row, to what has been a noticeable reduction in sales volume related to available listings. I...

A weekend topic starting with the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. "The people behind the Issue 7 green-energy initiative on Tuesday's ballot have remained largely secretive. Two of their leaders have been mired in major personal financial problems that have dogged them for the past 14 years. John A....

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The streets aren’t being easy on Zillow, which is reportedly losing money on homes it bought to flip, but are instead proving flops. The winners of the real estate fumble include seller Abidemi Bolatiwa, who sold his Phoenix four-bedroom to the...

A report from Gizmodo. "Zillow has been hemorrhaging cash in the home-buying arms race in certain markets. Bloomberg wrote: 'Zillow put a record number of homes on the market in September. It also cut prices on nearly half of its U.S. listings in the third quarter.' In some markets like Atlanta,...

A report from WTOP. "About 1 million U.S. homeowners with a mortgage are still in some stage of a mortgage payment forbearance program with their lender. The current rate of delinquencies at all stages is 3.5%, and that is historically high. 'The last time we saw this high of a level was back in...

A report from the Wichita Plus in Kansas. "Lange Real Estate realtor Rachel Lange said she’s seen the market shift. 'Things aren’t as hot and crazy as they were, All of those times have to come to an end,' she said." The Herald Bulletin in Indiana. "For September 2021, pending sales, closed sales,...

A report from Pleasanton Weekly in California. "Buyer behavior has shifted during the second half of 2021 and is likely to continue into next year said Tina Hand, 2021 president of the Bay East Association of Realtors. Hand said buyers are backing off and sellers aren't used to that. Asked how...

A weekend topic starting with the Review Journal in Nevada. "After a prolonged hot streak in the housing market, at least one flipper is maxed out. Zillow announced it will not sign any new contracts to buy homes 'through the end of the year.' Offerpad purchased a two-story, 3,151-square-foot house...

A report from Bloomberg. "No city exemplifies the mania of the Covid-era U.S. housing market better than Boise, Idaho. But in a sudden reversal, buyers are now the ones with power. Asking prices for houses are being slashed. Demand has slowed so much it’s like a light switch suddenly turned off,...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The number of single-family home sales has declined for three consecutive months. Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group, said the single' biggest reason for the slide is that the typical price of a home in Massachusetts has climbed 'too high and too...

A report from Boca News Now in Florida. "Home values in Boca Raton and Delray Beach dropped precipitously between from the second to third quarter of 2021. According to the Elliman Report prepared by Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers, the average price of a single family home in Boca Raton...

A report from Reuters. "The stock of housing under construction increased 1.3% to a rate of 1,426 million units last month, the highest since February 1974." From Market Watch. "Zillow’s unexpected announcement this week that it’s putting a temporary stop to its home-buying activities raised many...

A report from Bloomberg. "Zillow’s iBuying business loses money, so stopping purchases should help its bottom line, analyst Ygal Arounian said in a note. 'This feels like they bought way too many homes and they’re trying to work off that excess supply,' said Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal...

A report from Bloomberg. "Zillow, which acquired more than 3,800 homes in the second quarter, will stop pursuing new home purchases as it works through a backlog of properties already in its pipeline. 'We are beyond operational capacity in our Zillow Offers business and are not taking on additional...

A report from the Phoenix Business Journal in Arizona. "Some of the hottest areas of the Valley for recent land deals are in the northwest and southwest areas, along with the Mesa-Gilbert market and Pinal County, said Jim Daniel, president of RL Brown Housing Reports. While he's always on the...

A weekend topic starting with the Northwest Florida Daily News. "The Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin metropolitan area saw a massive increase in permits for new single-family homes in the past year. Alan Baggett, VP of The Building Industry Association of Okaloosa and Walton Counties added, 'If...