The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Globe and Mail. "It was Mar. 27, 2020, and the central bank had just unveiled a plan to buy Canadian government bonds at the astounding pace of at least $5-billion a week. 'Some may suggest this is using a lot of firepower,' Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said of the...

A report from Spectrum 1 on New York. "Small landlord Karron Graves-Briceño says her whole retirement is wrapped up in the one unit she rents out in Harlem. She says her tenant stopped paying rent nearly a year ago even though the financial records he submitted nearly two and a half years ago, when...

A weekend topic starting with News 10 in Oregon. "J.J. Kramer a realtor with John L Scott, said he does not believe that price increases and bidding are perpetuated by realtors. 'The market speaks, it doesn't really have anything to do with the real estate agents, I mean, we are out engaging the...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Amarillo Association of Realtors Board Member, Cindi Bulla, expressed that the biggest challenge right now in this market, including in Amarillo, is inventory. She continued to explain, 'By those people who are able to offer a cash price and a quick...

A report from ABC 7 in Illinois. "In Evanston, there are only 40 single family homes for sale right now; not even a one month supply of inventory. Upwards of two dozen hopeful buyers at a time have been seen in lines forming at open houses. 'It was the same thing,' said Allie Payne of Compass...

A report from Local Profile on Texas. "Located at Lebanon Road and the Dallas North Tollway, the 175-acre Wade Park development was envisioned as the crown jewel of Frisco’s vaunted '5 billion dollar mile.' Yet instead of that picturesque scenery, Wade Park now resembles a cross between an...

A report from Realtor.com. "The residential real estate market has been on a wild tear for the past few years—and the pandemic has pushed things to new, uncharted extremes. 'The very nature of the pandemic, through the health implications, social distancing, and need to isolate, has really brought...

A report from the New York Post. "This historic Soho loft is in contract to sell for the low price of $4 million. The sprawling loft first went on the market for $10.95 million in 2013. The seller is artist Edwina Sandys, who was last asking $5.5 million for her quirky home. 'The loft is worth so...

A weekend topic starting with NPR. "VANEK SMITH: 'Who are these people with this cash?' He says all this started some years back.' A handful of, like, ski bum, techie startuppy types moved into Bozeman from big cities, and they started telling their friends about it. And their friends started...

A weekend topic starting with Mortgage News Daily. "Quontic Bank has expanded its very popular No Ratio program such that the borrower doesn’t put income or job on the application for owner-occupied borrowers. The borrower could have opened a business yesterday. No bank statements for income; No...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Buyers started returning to San Francisco’s downtown condo market in the fourth quarter of 2020. The resurgence in sales, however, didn’t bolster prices: They declined an average of 10.4% year over year to $1,056 per square foot, which Sandra Eaton,...

A report from Cal Matters on California. "At the start of the pandemic, Brandon McCall’s two tenants ran into financial trouble. With a limited amount of cash coming in, McCall said the two of them stopped paying rent on his Van Nuys condo in Los Angeles. McCall looked into mortgage forbearance,...

A report from WTMJ in Wisconsin. "Shorewest realtor Essam Elsafy is counseling his clients through this frenzied housing market. He says acting fast is a necessity. He shared a conversation he recently had with house hunters. 'We saw a house that we liked. They were in the house for 15 minutes and...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "The residential real-estate market is on its biggest tear since 2006, just before the housing bubble burst. 'It’s the hottest market I’ve ever seen,' said Sean Chandler, president of the central Texas division at home builder Chesmar Homes. 'The buyers that...

A report from Fox Business. "Florida, it turns out, isn’t for everyone. But you would never know it from the PR coming out of the state. David Lowe, sold his longtime home outside Sarasota, Fla., in 2019 for $375,000 and purchased a similar-sized house on a larger piece of land in North Georgia for...

A weekend topic starting with Now Toronto. "A Scarborough bungalow is currently listed at $2.2 million, which is double the record-breaking average price for a home in the Greater Toronto real estate market. The selling agents says that price is not evidence that Canadians are sitting on a housing...

A report from Market Place on New York. "Broker Peter Schubert estimates that between 10% and 20% of commercial real estate in Brooklyn is vacant right now — officially. 'On top of that 10 or 20%, we know that there’s kind of this shadow inventory of these other spaces, which haven’t quite hit the...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Americans treated their homes like ATMs last year, withdrawing $152.7 billion amid a cash-out refinancing spree not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis. Mortgage rates fell below 3 percent for the first time last year, making refis a...

A report from Politico. "The booming housing market helped stave off economic collapse in 2020. But soaring prices are starting to worry policymakers. The current pace of home price appreciation is unsustainable, they say. 'I am worried that the price run-up is going to choke off first-time...

A report from the Wall Street Journal on New York. "Manhattan landlords are pulling unrented apartments off the market at an unusually elevated rate, tightening inventory while rents are low and, in some neighborhoods, still falling. Building owners removed 1,814 apartment listings in Manhattan...