The Housing Bubble Blog

A weekend topic starting with Bisnow London. "It is just over three years since Toys R Us tumbled into administration in the UK, and the property business that owned the UK stores collapsed into receivership. The portfolio carried debts of £363M and just £177M in assets. You would have to be an...

A weekend topic starting with The Atlantic. "Advanced by an unholy alliance of cynical property owners and misinformed activists, the argument goes like this: If local governments were to remove the arbitrary zoning barriers that are behind America’s housing shortage, developers would build only...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Extell Development has sold a sponsor unit at One57 for $16.8 million, 15.4 percent below its last asking price. Extell first listed the condo at about $24 million in July 2020, before it was chopped to $20 million in January. Fast forward to...

A report from Everything Lubbock in Texas. "Real estate professionals said they have seen a shortage of homes in the Lubbock area. 'Sellers will have multiple offers, so it creates a bit of panic for those who are wanting to move up and put their homes on the market,' said Smith Teresa Smith,...

A report from Radar Online. "Toni Braxton’s sister Towanda has lost her Georgia mansion to foreclosure as part of her Chapter 7 bankruptcy. According to court documents obtained by Radar, a federal court judge granted a motion brought by Rushmore Loan Management. The company asked to seize...

A report from Better Dwelling in Canada. "A Canadian official in charge of housing policy confirmed the current market is not an accident. Instead, it’s a conscious decision where the government picked the winners and losers. TVO aired an interview with MP Adam Vaughan yesterday, discussing housing...

A report from the Post and Courier in South Carolina. "Put up a 'For Sale' sign, and wait for the cash to roll in. In a real estate market as hot as Greenville, where there’s precious little inventory and many homes can spark bidding wars, selling a home seems just that simple. If only it were that...

A weekend topic starting with Morningstar. "Morningstar’s director of research defines an investment as 'an expenditure that can reasonably be determined to have a positive expected return,' whereas speculation 'occurs when the return is too uncertain to be estimated, or if the estimate can be...

A report from the New York Times. "In only a year, the market value of office towers in Manhattan, home to the country’s two largest central business districts, has plummeted 25%, according to city projections. Across the country, the vacancy rate for office buildings in city centers has steadily...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "'We’ve been seeing outflow from Manhattan into Connecticut, and it has been crazy,' said Cliff Smith, managing partner with The Agency in New Canaan, Connecticut. 'Frankly, everyone is overpaying now, but it’s a personal decision.'" "But it may be...

A report from WSMV in Tennessee. "A Nashville couple said they were forced into forbearance by tenants they believe are taking advantage of the pandemic, going months without paying rent. No answer and still no rent Wednesday when Girish Rachakonda stopped by his investment property in Bellevue....

A report from the Pahrump Valley Times in Nevada. "Home prices were on the rise in Southern Nevada, including in Pahrump, in March. 'The pandemic has contributed to the supply shortage due in part to homeowners being out of work, and therefore unable to upgrade even if they wanted to unless they...

A report from Boston.com in Massachusetts. "The housing market in suburban Boston is 'crazy.' That’s the description Laura Semple and Beth Hettrich, agents in Sudbury, gave. 'We listed one house at $1.1 million based on comparable sales that had 12 offers and sold for $1.26 million in one day,'...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "The bubble has room to grow before it bursts, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting. But it is inflating fast. Bruce McNeilage began building houses to rent out around Nashville, Tenn., in 2005. These days Kinloch can borrow far more from a...

A weekend topic starting with KCRG in Iowa. "Chelsie Brown, from Cedar Rapids, is one of many people looking to buy a home in a challenging market. One obstacle she’s run into, and that she’s had to increase her budget since the start of her search. 'It’s still the same thing. You find a house...

A weekend topic starting with CNBC. "The International Monetary Fund has raised concerns over commercial property and the risk it could pose to financial stability. Andrea Deghi, a financial sector expert at the IMF, explained that if a slew of businesses in the sector were to collapse, then that...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Lenders should be better prepared to deal with home owners who are in danger of losing their home, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) warned on Thursday. 'There is a tidal wave of distressed homeowners who will need help from their...

A report from WACH on South Carolina. "If you’re looking to buy or sell a house, it’s boom time. 'Interest rates are at an all-time low. Banks are pretty much giving free money away. Buyers are seeing that and it doesn’t matter what monetary background you’re coming from whether you make $50,000 a...

A report from CNBC. "The Federal Reserve now owns more than a third of the agency mortgage-backed securities, or MBS market. At the start of 2019, the Fed held $1.6 trillion in agency MBS. It tapered that down to $1.37 trillion by mid-March of 2020. Then, when the economy and housing market were...

A report from the Weatherford Democrat in Texas. "Two vacant homes — abandoned by a builder who went bankrupt — are still standing stagnant inside an East Parker County housing development after more than two years. Serene Country Homes, LLC, abandoned 18 homes in Meadow Place Estates in Willow...