The Housing Bubble

Reuters reports on California. “Sheila Hill is no closer to making a down payment on a house than she was a year ago, when she began shopping in the San Diego area, even though prices on some of the single-family homes she has seen have fallen $200,000. ‘It’s kind of an awkward time right now to be a buyer,’ Hill said. ‘I have the credit, but with the market slipping down so much it’s hard to know when to jump in.’”

“‘They are terrified to purchase a home and have it decline in value,’ said Steve Johnson, director of the Southern California region for Metrostudy. ‘We haven’t seen this kind of buyer apathy in regards to committing to real estate in 15 years.’”

“Prospective buyers like Hill and Chanette Duplessis, would rather sit on the sidelines for now.”

“‘I’m a little hesitant to jump right in immediately, because I think that prices are still going to go down,’ said Duplessis, who has been paying $2,600 a month in rent since she sold her last home in the city of Inglewood near Los Angeles a year and a half ago.”

“‘I’m not at this point too anxious,’ she said. ‘You know why rich people are rich? Because they shop around.’”

The Orange County Register. “Mike Borja has witnessed diminishing house prices first-hand since putting his home up for sale this summer. While he had to lower the price by almost $50,000 to adjust to the market, he says he can still make a fair profit on the home he bought for $276,000 in 1999.”

“‘I appraised my home last year and it was worth $552,000,’ Borja says of the three-bedroom condo in Terracina, one of Rancho’s newest communities. ‘I’m now selling it for $519,000.’”

“Borja is not alone in wanting to sell his home before it further depreciates. Of the 12,723 owner-occupied homes in town, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, about 365 of them are on the market, according to Rancho Realtor Laurene Davis. The median home price in Rancho is $594,500.”

The North County Times. “The pace of home building in Riverside County, the epicenter of California’s recent housing boom, has slowed to less than half what it was a year ago, a report released Monday by the California Building Industry Association shows.”

“‘We’ve been on this trend for a number of months,’ said Borre Winckel, executive director for the Riverside County Chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California. ‘We’ve been trending fully 50 percent below last year.’”

“Winckel said area residents can expect that trend to continue through 2008, accompanied by a moderate decline in home values.”

“Analysts say many buyers of existing homes are refusing to make purchases unless sellers offer steep discounts, and sellers are refusing to budge on prices, in the hopes of getting what their neighbors did at the height of the boom. ‘We have this curious phenomenon, where everybody is waiting for a better opportunity,’ Winckel said.”

“Winckel said the downturn is concerning because home building accounts for about one-third of Riverside County jobs, either directly through construction or indirectly through sales of appliances, lawn mowers and other items used in the home.”

“Winckel said builders also are concerned about their livelihood. ‘We’re not looking to go from bust to boom again; we’re just looking to get back into the business,’ he said.”

“Winckel urged potential buyers to…take advantage of the swelling inventories of for-sale signs in neighborhoods all over the county. Economist Robert Campbell predicted most buyers won’t. ‘We’re in a hurricane right now. The leading edge of the hurricane is hitting us with full force,’ he said. ‘You think people are going to jump back into this market after what’s happened the last year and a half? No way.’”

The Daily News. “Foreclosures soared an annual 246.8 percent in the greater San Fernando Valley during July as trouble with adjustable rate loans continues to mount, a university research center said Tuesday.”

“‘This is an ominous sign,’ said Daniel Blake, director of the Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge. ‘There are a lot of possible (loan) resets out there, and we don’t know the extent of them.’”

“In all, 263 homeowners lost their properties last month. In July 2006 just 47 homeowners from Glendale to Calabasas lost their homes. At the current rate, foreclosures alone could account for 4,700 homes on the market next year.”

“‘That could bring enough housing on the market to upset the price stability we’ve seen here,’ Blake said of the market from Glendale to Calabasas.”

“Jim Link, executive VP of the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors, said that it may even bring a buying opportunity because prices have yet to fall by a large amount.”

“‘Roughly 20 percent of the market (sales) being REOS (foreclosures) I think … would definitely have an impact on prices,’ he said.”

“Malaise continued in other markets, too, including the Santa Clarita Valley. Sales of previously owned single family homes fell 18 percent to 194 transactions. And the median price declined 5.8 percent to $570,000. Condo sales fell an annual 32 percent to 83 properties and the median price slipped 4 percent to $359,000.”

The LA Times. “More than 100 houses a day are being foreclosed on in Southern California, up from 13 a day last year. That’s still a relative handful for such a populous area, but even the optimists predict that the problem will soon get much worse.”

“In a Los Angeles cul-de-sac off Coldwater Canyon Drive near Beverly Hills, there’s a foreclosed house that should be empty and isn’t. The mansion in question was bought by a man in early 2005 for $1.4 million. By last fall he was gone and the property was in foreclosure.”

“Authorities and real estate agents say similar problems arose during the wave of foreclosures in the 1990s, when houses stayed empty for months.”

“Chris Ragsdale, the Los Angeles Police Department’s senior lead officer for Westwood and Bel-Air, recalled one case from the end of that era in Pacific Palisades. The squatters changed the locks, turned on the electricity and brought in furniture. When the agent trying to sell the place showed up, they maintained that they had a lease.”

“‘If you know what you’re doing, you can get six months in a place with a kick-ass view,’ Ragsdale said.”

The Bakersfield Californian. “Once-prominent real estate salesman David Crisp last week received two new default notices on the Stockdale Highway offices he bought in April and was named in a lawsuit demanding repayment of more than $160,000.”

“More than 85 local properties associated with the former Crisp & Cole Real Estate company have defaulted since the beginning of the year, according to an ongoing Californian tally.”

“Also last week, Chicago Title Company filed a lawsuit against Crisp, his wife and Crisp, Cole & Associates. The lawsuit seeks more than $160,917, alleging Crisp failed to repay a line of credit on a property he bought at 1215 L St.”

“Crisp bought the home, took out a $149,500 line of credit from Wells Fargo Bank and gifted a 99 percent interest in the property to Crisp, Cole & Associates before selling on November 10, 2006, according to the lawsuit. Crisp received $235,000 in proceeds from the sale.”

The El Dorado Hills Telegraph. “Folsom and El Dorado Hills are located in the ninth worst market - the Sacramento metropolitan area - for home foreclosures nationwide, but they’ve been spared the carnage somewhat.”

“Sacramento County saw 3,840 notices of default filed between April and June 2007, a 184 percent jump compared with the same quarter in 2006, reported DataQuick. El Dorado County, with 222 notices filed, saw a slightly smaller increase of 158 percent.”

“Jim Foster, who works with JM Morgan Funding in Folsom and lives in El Dorado Hills, said neither area was as hard hit as regions like Elk Grove, Lincoln, and South Sacramento.”

“Like any game, Foster said the market is psychologically driven. ‘Even if you’re scraping by making a payment, if the house you bought for $500,000 is now worth $600,000, you have more invested,’ he said. ‘You’re going to find a way to make it work. But when (the value) goes down, frankly people just divorce themselves from the house and walk.’”

“El Dorado Hills is a slightly different animal, Foster said. On his own street, Powers Drive, Foster has watched foreclosures on at least two $1 million-plus homes in the past six months.”

“EDH took a more industry-specific hit than Folsom. ‘A lot of these people were dialed into real estate as mortgage brokers or builders and this industry has taken a big hit,’ he said. ‘Some are making one-tenth the money they made before.’”

“‘When foreclosures do occur in Folsom, they’re mostly among younger couples who financed their house with no payment down and adjustable-rate mortgages, the phenomenon that’s rendered fast-growing areas like Elk Grove rife with lost homes.”

“Interest rates went up, payments went up, and with the lack of appreciation the market is seeing, homeowners no longer have the equity to pull out of their house to make payments,’ explained Tom Pellegrini, of Norcal Foreclosure Services in Folsom.”

“Foster knows of two or three Folsom couples in their 20’s who allowed the bank to foreclose on their homes, opting to rent instead.”

“‘They weren’t even behind on their mortgage,’ Foster said. ‘They just figured they could rent a house for half the payment, and twice the square footage.’”

The Melfort Journal reports from Canada. “The housing market is continuing to boom in the Melfort area. ‘We’re still very busy. There are lots of people looking for housing and as new listings come up, they’re selling very quickly,’ said real estate agent Colleen Ratcliffe. ‘I would think pricing is maybe still rising just a tiny bit, not like it was earlier in the year.’”

“There are several reasons for the increase in the housing market. ‘Because Saskatchewan is a great place. Our prices have been so much lower than the rest of Canada for so long and now people are just discovering how great it is. They can sell their high priced properties in Alberta or Ontario or B.C. and come here and buy an equal property and put hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pockets,’ Ratcliffe said.”

“Bill Madder, the executive VP of the Association of Saskatchewan Realtors, said the market has been stable or low for many years and people are drawn to the relatively low prices.”

“The increase in sales is happening throughout the province. Agent Richelle Rogers said real estate agents are seeing increases in housing sales everywhere including Tisdale, Humboldt and Nipawin.”

“‘It (the housing boom) came completely out of the blue,’ said Ratcliffe. ‘It’s not just Melfort. Sales are happening all over.’”

The Ottawa Citizen from Canada. “It could get harder and more expensive for Canadians with impaired credit to get a mortgage in the months ahead as waves from the U.S. credit crisis begin to reach into Canada, analysts say.”

“Canada’s small but fast-growing subprime mortgage segment, devoted to riskier borrowers, is headed for a slowdown that could have lasting impacts, Benjamin Tal, an economist with CIBC World Markets, said yesterday.”

“Within the past week, two large Canadian lenders, GMAC Residential Funding and MCAP Finance Corp., notified mortgage brokers they would not be providing subprime mortgages to new customers, at least in the near future.”

“‘We expect over the next six months, we will see a noticeable softening in the subprime activity in Canada,’ said Mr. Tal, who says loan growth in the sector has hit explosive annual rates of 40 per cent so far this year and 50 per cent in 2006.”

“When it does return to what he calls the ‘new normal,’ those offering subprime mortgages to riskier consumers will charge relatively more, compared to conventional loans, than they do now, he said. And annual growth ‘will be around 10 per cent, rather than 40 per cent.’”

“‘All the alternative lenders in the Canadian mortgage market are obviously impacted by the ability to issue paper to raise money for new mortgages,’ said Jim Murphy, president of the Canadian Association of Mortgage Professionals.”

“The problem ‘is very much imported from the U.S. We have a market that is very much healthier in terms of people making payments,’ said Mr. Murphy. ‘But this is having an impact in terms of the ability to sell mortgages.’”

The Edmonton Sun from Canada. “Home sellers are slashing their asking prices by tens of thousands of dollars as Edmonton’s once sizzling housing market continues to cool, says a city real estate agent.”

“And new figures from the Edmonton Real Estate Board show the vast majority of sellers are now getting less than they’re asking for - a stark contrast to the bidding wars of a year ago that routinely forced buyers to pay more than the list price.”

“‘There’s tons of stuff on the market. There’s twice as much inventory in residential real estate today as there was a year ago at this time,’ agent Abe Hering told Sun Media yesterday.”

“As a result, Hering said he routinely advises clients who’ve had their homes on the market for awhile to drop their asking price by 10% in order to remain competitive. On an average $417,000 single-detached home, that works out to more than $40,000.”

“‘There’s no sense reducing any product by 5% because it just doesn’t work. We’re seeing reductions of 10% and more,’ he said.”

“Jon Hall, with the Edmonton Real Estate Board, said 85% of single family homes that sold over the past 30 days went for less than the asking price. Condos didn’t fair much better, with 79% going for less than the asking price.”

“‘What most realtors seem to be saying is that the sellers haven’t adjusted their mindset to the new reality - that we have over 8,000 listings and that buyers have choice,’ Hall said.”

“He said many sellers are knowingly asking for more than their home can fetch. ‘And quite frankly, the realtors are getting a bit frustrated,’ Hall said. ‘If the seller says, ‘I want it listed $20,000 above the market price,’ they’ve got to do it. Ten days or two weeks later, the realtor’s coming back and saying, ‘I told you so,’ and dropping the price.’”

“Carolyn Pratt, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, said some investors are trying to dump property. Pratt said she’s also heard some homeowners cashing out and moving back to their home provinces, like Saskatchewan, where homes are cheaper.”

“Keith Mackie, fleet director for Budget Rent-a-Car, sees it every day. He said demand for moving trucks going to Saskatchewan from Alberta and B.C. has recently increased three-fold. ‘It seems like a lot of people are going home,’ said Mackie. ‘There’s no doubt about it, it’s a significant number.’”

“Hall said many sellers with homes on the market in Edmonton today won’t sell. ‘It would be fair to say a lot of listings will melt. They’ll just disappear,’ Hall said. ‘They’ll just be withdrawn after a typical 60- or 90-day listing period.’”

From KTUU.com in Alaska. “The housing bubble seemed like it would never end as home values soared and loans were offered on terms allowing just about anyone to buy a home.”

“Don’t have a job? Credit shot? Short on assets? It seemed nothing could keep you out of the housing market. But those practices are coming to an end and for many, it’s ending tragically.”

“Homestate Mortgage Company’s John Carman said it had reached a point where it was almost too easy to get a loan.”

“‘For awhile, the pendulum swung to where the criteria got easier and easier and easier to get a loan, to the point where we had what we called ninja loans — no asset, no income, no job, not a very good credit score, no down payment — you could barely fog a mirror and you could buy a house,’ Carman said.”

“Jan Jones with the Consumer Credit Counseling Service sees many of those who can no longer afford their house payments. ‘We’re averaging, right now, about five or six calls a day from people,’ Jones said. ‘A lot of people right now are thinking, ‘If I can just hang on until October when the Permanent Fund Dividend’s in, I can fix it all.’ What they don’t realize is it’s probably just going to be a temporary fix.’”

“Some real estate agents say Alaska has seen 600 recent foreclosures, with more on the way. Just about every day, in the public notices section of the newspaper, you can read about the new foreclosures.”

“While fault lies with over-eager buyers, many blame mortgage brokers and bankers. The mortgage industry was a largely unregulated one until the Legislature passed - and Gov. Sarah Palin signed - a new law this summer.”

“‘We’re actually asking the state to come in and regulate our industry. I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t think there was a problem. Yeah, I think there was a problem. I think there were a lot of people getting into the business that probably shouldn’t have got into the business. They either didn’t have the knowledge or didn’t have the ethics to be in the business,’ Carman said.”

“But for many residents with sky-high mortgages, it will simply come too late. ‘Every office we have here has a box of Kleenex because it’s a tough situation. I don’t like having to sit across the desk from someone and tell them your choices are sell your home or it’s going to be foreclosed,’ Jones said.”

The Shreveport Times reports on Virginia. “What some analysts are calling the worst housing sales slump in decades prompted U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery to hold onto his Washington, D.C.-area home until at least the spring. McCrery said Wednesday that he put the family’s house in McLean, Va., on the market in April but took down the for-sale sign two weeks ago.”

“‘We just had no idea the house wouldn’t sell,’ he said. ‘We lowered our price $50,000. That didn’t help. In Washington, it’s a little soft right now.’”

The Washington Post. “Washington’s real estate industry, already pinched by a slowdown in residential construction, is bracing for further retrenchment after last week’s meltdown in the mortgage market.”

“In recent months, companies have begun cutting back in big ways and small. Collectively they are beginning to add up across the region. Economists estimate that the real estate industry accounts for 12 to 15 percent of the jobs in the Washington area.”

“At Key Title’s Arlington office, the number of closing documents it processes each month has dropped from 100 three years ago to 35, according to Jay Eskovitz, a settlement agent.”

“The title searching company that Eskovitz uses to research whether a property has liens against it went from two employees to one. The title surveyor, who draws dimensions of the property and home for settlement documents, has pulled out of residential property closings.”

“‘It doesn’t just stop with us but affects so many more people,’ Eskovitz said.”

“Gerardo Avila comes each morning to a site in south Arlington where day laborers gather. He has long seen a decline in the number of contractors and remodelers who come by to find workers. Two years ago, summer days were busy, and he was almost guaranteed a job. But at noon on a recent day, the site was teeming with day laborers unable to find work.”

“‘It’s been like this many days,’ Avila said.”

“‘I see the next year as being very slow, so I’m conserving cash for the future,’ said Roy Kilby, co-owner of K&P Builders in Bowie, (a) Prince George’s firm that reduced its staff.”

“Kilby has cut prices on his homes in subdivisions of Prince George’s and Charles counties. The new homes are built with luxury finishes, the kinds of bells and whistles people were demanding when credit was easy to come by and his sales offices were full of prospective buyers. Now that it’s become harder for home buyers to obtain loans, he’s stuck with expensive houses on expensive lots that he is struggling to sell.”

“‘We’re doing just about anything we can do to get people into a house, said Kilby, a 50-year veteran of the home-building business. ‘And these are people we would have told to take a hike last year or the year before last.’”

“The credit crunch has turned $417,000 into the magic number for home buyers shopping for mortgages. Caught in the middle are potential home buyers who are getting walloped by higher rates or shut out of the market.”

“Tammy Arbogast and her husband, Derrick Fouts, own a townhouse in Germantown. Now that they have two young children, they want a larger home and were planning to buy one nearby until jumbo rates shot up and pushed them to reconsider their options.”

“Instead of buying the home and then selling the townhouse, they hope to do the reverse. But even if they get the asking price for their townhouse, they may need a jumbo loan. To lessen the borrowing costs, they could make a larger down payment by dipping into their kids’ college savings, but they prefer not to.”

“‘We can just stay put in our townhouse,’ said Arbogast. ‘We’ll just wait it out.’”

“Doing so might mean passing up the house they’ve been eyeing, but that’s okay, said Fouts. ‘You can’t get attached to a house in this climate. It’s so easy to lose a house because of variables out of your control.’”

“The question now is how long the jumbo rates will stay this high, said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Core Logic. “If this lasts much longer, then people will begin to reevaluate what they can afford.”

The Gazette from Maryland. “CBRE Realty Finance plans to revive the Monterey condo conversion at the former Pavilion apartments in Rockville. The conversion has been stalled since the company foreclosed on the project in May when the developer defaulted on its loan.”

“CBRE’s struggles with the Monterey and a second conversion project in Towson are a sign of how the condo collapse locally and nationally has begun to hurt lenders.”

“In May, the company foreclosed on the Monterey, a 434-unit condominium conversion project, and Rodgers Forge, a 508-unit condominium conversion project in Towson, after Triton Real Estate Partners, the Annapolis developer, defaulted on its debt payments.”

“Triton’s collapse was part of the popping of the region’s condo development bubble, which has seen almost 20,000 condominium units removed from the pipeline during the past 12 months, either by canceled conversions or shifts in new construction to rental units, according to an analysis of area condo trends by Delta Associates.”

The News Journal from Delaware. “After years of double-digit growth, the rise in farmland values in Delaware slowed last year in part due to a cooling-off of the housing market.”

“‘There are not a lot of deals getting done, and if you want to sell your land today you have to be prepared to be reasonable with the price,’ said Preston Schell, president of Ocean Atlantic Companies, a developer and builder based in Rehoboth Beach.”

“Schell said there still is a lot of interest in farmland for development, but some prices have dropped significantly, more than 50 percent. ‘Land that would have cost $45,000 to $50,000 an acre now we can buy for $15,000 to $20,000 an acre,’ Schell added.”

“‘When we see really good deals we are still out there buying,’ said Schell. ‘There are tons of buyers out there; the activity is stronger but the buyer is trigger-shy right now because prices may go down more.’”

The Daily Times from Delaware. “As in most parts of the country, the local real estate market has slowed down substantially in the last year, according to local realtors. ‘Depending on who you talk to or what paper you read, some people say we’re in for this for another year, some say five,’ said Rick Allamong, broker for Coldwell Banker in Bethany Beach.”

“‘The market has slowed dramatically from the pace we experienced two years ago,’ added Rick Meehan, a realtor and the mayor of Ocean City. Meehan, like most local realtors, says Americans are experiencing a buyer’s market. There’s a wealth of attractive properties to choose from and the sellers are willing to negotiate.”

“‘There’s never been a better time to buy,’ said Kathy Panco, another realtor. ‘Concessions are being made to make the transaction happen.’”

“It might be a buyer’s market, but that doesn’t mean that buyers are actually purchasing homes. There are currently 5,461 units on the market in Sussex County and 2,000 in Ocean City.”

“‘I think the jury is still out on what’s going to happen there,’ he said. ‘But we have a two-year supply of inventory and only about 30 percent of that will sell between now and next summer.’”

“In addition, many real estate agents say that vacation areas are usually the first to be hit by slowing sales, because they are not primary housing markets. ‘Resort areas are usually hit first,’ said realtor Ted Smith. ‘People don’t have to buy vacation homes.’”

“Most realtors remain optimistic in spite of the slow market. ‘Pretty soon people are going to be saying shoulda, coulda, woulda,’ Panco said.”

Business Week reports from New Jersey. “About 60 people huddle on the front lawn of the white bungalow with green shutters in Ocean Township, N.J. Many of them clutch bright yellow paper signs showing a bidder number. They hope to walk away with a house, winning a good deal at an auction.”

“Already, states that never hosted many housing auctions are seeing demand jump as home prices plunge and more borrowers find themselves trapped in unmanageable mortgages.”

“‘Until six months ago, we were only selling assets in California periodically, now we’re selling dozens and it could get into the hundreds,’ said Dean Williams, chief executive of (an) auction firm. ‘Same thing in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and Virginia. Places where volume has been light has probably doubled since last year.’”

“Tricia Kelly, a local living with her parents, is hoping for a bargain. Even though the housing slump has stopped the sharp acceleration of home prices, Kelly still finds prices are too high for her in this town. ‘I’ve never been to one. If it’s going where I want, I might jump in,’ she says.”

“Lingering on the sidewalk, Tim Lane is curious to see what his old house will go for. He sold the house two-and-a-half years ago for $255,000 to the investor who lost it in foreclosure. ‘The guy tried to flip it for $379,000 a month later. Obviously, it didn’t work out,’ the electrician says with a chuckle.”

“The condo is first and Green rattles off the bids without a breath. The offers start to stall on the condo after its opening bid of $25,000, so Green tries to entice the crowd. ‘The last listing prices for this condo was $160,000,’ he says.”

“Hands shoot up and Tony Nardini, a mortgage broker, finally wins the condo for $75,000.”

“‘Now, here’s the one you have all come for,’ Green says, pointing to the quiet bungalow. Opening at $50,000, the bidding surges above $200,000. Kelly shakes her head as the price soars beyond her budget.”

“Finally, Antonio Pragosa’s offer of $283,000 ends the battle for the bungalow, and the West Long Branch, N.J., resident slips away shortly after signing the auction papers.”

“Nardini, who grabbed the condo for his parents, says: ‘That guy paid way too much. He let emotion take over as opposed to reality. At $200,000, it would have made sense.’”

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. “Liz Seither deftly juggles the two phones that never stop ringing in her kitchen. The Clearwater Realtor’s eyes are puffy below unkempt flaming orange hair. Seither invested in expensive Clearwater waterfront property at the peak of the recent boom. Lenders are after her for millions of dollars in debts.”

“After juggling 15 calls from debtors, creditors and clients, Seither lays the phones aside and delivers a pep talk to herself. ‘I’m not a real estate bum,’ the president of Executive Preferred Properties announces. ‘I wear diamonds, Rolexes and necklaces. I’m a classy Realtor.’”

“Clearwater Realtor Anthony Marottoli entered the real estate roulette game a bit late. Despite asking almost $700,000 less than his neighbor, Marottoli hasn’t found a buyer for his Mandalay condo. Doubling down, he’s on the hook for another pricey condo at the adjacent Sandpearl Resort for $1.38-million.”

“His real estate business is down to a dribble of employees, from a peak of 20. ‘I’ve been waiting a year and a half, waiting for something to happen. And it’s not happening,’ Marottoli says.”

“These days the waterfront runs red. Properties linger three times as long on the market as they did two years ago. Brokers like Seither and Marottoli have taken it doubly hard: They didn’t just represent buyers and sellers, they dabbled in the investment arena themselves.”

“The housing slump has left the market oversupplied with million-dollar homes relative to demand. Listings on Clearwater area beaches approach 1,000. Sales in July numbered 30. As new condo towers open, the glut grows.”

“Says Virgil Sweet, a 24-year Realtor in Belleair Bluffs: ‘People don’t know you have too many until you have too many.’”

The Tampa Tribune from Florida. “Two years ago, when SkyPoint condominium was just a pile of dirt and a sophisticated plastic concept model, Ann Blank stood in line for hours to buy a one-bedroom unit for $241,000.”

“Blank made the decision based on what city planners and developers said downtown would become. By the time SkyPoint was finished, the city was supposed to be filling up with entertainment and services that haven’t materialized. Blank thought it would make a fine rental apartment for a few years, then she’d sell for a profit.”

“‘It was going to be great,’ said Blank, who is a real estate agent.”

“SkyPoint’s developers forged ahead and already plan two more developments, one of which is under construction. But the market tanked, and now Blank, who is asking $1,500 a month in rent for her approximately 800-square-foot condo, can’t find any takers. She blames the lack of services downtown.”

“Part of the reason for Blank’s trouble may be that many buyers had the same idea. There are 286 condominiums in 15 buildings in downtown Tampa listed for sale on the MLS. An additional 127 downtown condos are advertised for rent on craigslist.”

“Of three projects that are substantially complete, plus Trump Tower Tampa, which hasn’t broken ground, 180 of 1,046 units, or 17 percent, are listed for sale or rent.”

“Some buyers are bailing because they no longer can afford their investments. Blank said another agent in her office represented a buyer who walked away from two downtown condominiums he had contracts to purchase. He lost about $100,000 in down payments rather than risk foreclosure or bankruptcy, she said.”

“‘People are losing big money,’ she said. ‘It’s almost like a crash.’”

From WALB.com in Georgia. “As the housing market slumps, foreclosures are way up. Georgia has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation and some real estate agents are having a hard time getting people into homes.”

“For the past 18 years, people looking for a new home simply called real estate agent Edgar McConnell for help. Nowadays, things are different. ‘I have not had a good year,’ said McConnell.”

“It’s been a slow change. Calls have been reduced and fewer homes have been sold. ‘We have a lot of houses on the market,’ said McConnell.”

“On one street in Albany, we found three For Sale signs within a few feet of the other. They’ve all been up for a while. ‘It’s been slow. You don’t get calls. It just seems like there isn’t any interest in houses like it used to be,’ said McConnell.”

From the Sun News in South Carolina. “Construction has slowed way down on the Grand Strand since last year, and slowed slightly since last quarter.”

‘”The building permit data certainly show that builders around the Grand Strand remain cautious - and with what seems to be a growing sense of uncertainty nationwide about the housing market - this caution is probably well-placed,’ said Don Schunk, research economist at Coastal Carolina University.”

“Permits in Horry County dropped to 167 for condos from 724 in the second quarter, according to a real estate research firm. Single family home permits are down to 891 from 1,533 and townhomes are down to 162 from 341.”

“Lot prices are dropping, a sign that the market is correcting itself and finding the bottom, analysts say. The median price of single-family lots in Horry County dropped 25 percent over last year’s second quarter. Lot prices went to $52,000 from $69,000 last year.”

“‘Lot [price] reduction is a good sign,’ said real estate analyst Carl Van Horn. The fact that land prices are now being affected means that the market is at least closer to the bottom, he said.”

“Craig Dierksheide, who sells land for Coldwell Banker Chicora, said he’s seeing price drops on land now, a reaction that took a while to happen after home prices dropped. ‘A lot of people I know wish they would have sold at the peak. A lot of people wish they hadn’t bought at the peak. That’s just the cycle,’ he said.”

“Large builders have dropped out of many of their major projects and put them on hold, Dierksheide said. ‘That’s created a lot of inventory for land,’ he said.”

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