The Housing Bubble Blog

A weekend topic starting with the Staunton News Leader in Virginia. " According to the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors, there are 370 listings currently active. Previously, it was a challenge to sell over $350,000, but looking at the current market showed a seller's market with some prices...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The stratospheric housing market may be returning to earth. Through the first eight months of the year, 28,306 homes were listed for sale in Greater Columbus, up 13.5% from the same period in 2020. 'Even with record sales last month, the number of...

A report from WKRN in Tennessee. "'The Hermitage market inventory has doubled in the past 12 months,' Bobby Hill with Crye-Leike Realtors said. 'What we’re seeing right now is push back in our marketplace from the buyer base toward sellers who are getting overzealous with their asking price,' said...

A report from the Coeur d’Alene Press in Idaho. "Kristen Johnson, Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors president said there aren’t as many competitive offers on homes as there were earlier this year, so the market is seeing some price reductions. It’s important to price accordingly, based on...

A report from the Austin Business Journal in Texas. "More evidence is rolling in that indicates the period of rapidly increasing monthly housing prices may be coming to an end. The Austin Board of Realtors' most recent market update, released Sept. 16, shows since June, prices have fallen slightly...

A report from AZ Business Magazine. "August home sales dropped 3.5% from July’s total – and the Median Sale Price slipped 1.2% to $335,000. 'Although we appear to be past the blistering summer peak, the market is still very active,' says Nick Bailey, President, RE/MAX, LLC. 'In fact, the drop in...

A report from Banker and Tradesman. "The coming weeks and months present a challenge to reporters and editors covering the Massachusetts real estate market. After 18 months of precipitous price jumps, this summer saw hints that the speed of those increases was slowing down. A number of prospective...

A weekend topic starting with Realtor.com. "In today’s wild housing market, it may seem that the only successful homebuyers are either uber-rich or now house poor after spending everything they had on an overpriced home. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area (which includes the suburbs), buyers put...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Have Northern Virginia home sellers missed the sweet spot? The D.C. region’s red-hot housing market has begun to show signs of fatigue, and in Northern Virginia the market softened in August. 'Overall we’ve definitely seen a softening in the market...

A report from the Wilsonville Spokesman in Oregon. "The market already has tapered a bit from its absolute highs a few months ago. 'We're seeing more price reduction come across the MLS (multiple listing service) than we've seen in over a year' said Broker Dwight Schwab. 'That doesn't mean prices...

A report from Greenville News in South Carolina. "Denise Franklin, president of the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors said the local housing market is starting to 'soften a little bit.' Some fear the ongoing real-estate boom may lead to another housing-market collapse like the one that...

A report from the Coeur d' Alene Press in Idaho. "The wild real estate market ride in Kootenai County might be calming down. As of Sept. 9, there were over 1,200 local MLS listings. That's more than triple the number of listed homes in January." From Valley News Live in North Dakota. "After a red...

A report from the Washington Post. "Q: When we bought our house nearly 27 years ago, we wondered if we were overpaying. It was the mid-1990s, and houses in our neighborhoods of choice were in extremely short supply. The math we did went something like this: If we pay X dollars for the house and...

A report from the Fort Myers News Press in Florida. "In a nutshell: 'The peak insanity is over,' said Denny Grimes, president of his team at Keller Williams Realty. That's bad news for sellers. 'We are starting to see prices level,' Grimes said. 'We are starting to see inventory slightly grow. If...

A weekend topic starting with Bloomberg. "Disgruntled China Evergrande Group customers staged a protest in Guangzhou demanding that the cash-strapped developer restart stalled construction work and urging the local government to intervene. More than 100 home buyers in white T-shirts emblazoned with...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The September Realtor.com report stated: 'August [2021] housing data shows early signs of sellers beginning to compete for buyers … As inventory and new listings continued to improve in August, the rate of sellers making price adjustments has begun...

A report from the Idaho Statesman. "It may be a relief to hopeful home buyers to see local median home prices fall for the first time in more than a year. 'There’s a psychology behind it,' said Jennifer Louis, a Boise real estate agent. 'Once people see a couple drops, they put on the brakes and...

A report from Fortune. "So why is inventory rising now? 'There’s a mentality among some sellers that if they don’t sell now, they’ll miss their opportunity to get top dollar,' said Ali Wolf, chief economist at Zonda." From ROI New Jersey. "Kristin Ehrgott has been selling high-end homes in New...

A report from the Buffalo News in New York. "The median sales price in the Buffalo Niagara area has topped $200,000 for three straight months – the first time that has ever happened – and hit a record $225,000 in July, according to the Realtors group. Those increases are virtually unheard of in...

A holiday topic starting with VOA News. "In the latest sign that corporate debt levels in China pose a threat to the broader economy, Chinese regulators on Friday were forced to halt trading in bonds issued by Evergrande, the country’s second-largest property developer. Concerns that the company...