The Housing Bubble

Inman News reports on California. “New-home sales dropped 27.8 percent in July compared to July 2006, the California Building Industry Association reported today, and new single-family sales fell 20.3 percent, with median new-home prices dropping 4.8 percent and median new single-family home prices falling 8.6 percent.”

“Eleven of 29 regions in California had double-digit percentage declines in median new-home prices in July compared to July 2006, according to the latest CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence New Home Sales and Pricing Report, with data not available for three regions.”

“Among markets with 100 or more new single-family sales in July 2007, median prices dropped 27.6 percent in the Los Angeles-Long-Beach-Glendale area, 12 percent in the Stockton area and 10.8 percent in the Fresno area, according to the report.”

The Sacramento Bee. “Sacramento’s 2-year-old real estate downturn has a good chance of hitting bottom in 2008, banking and building industry analysts told struggling area builders gathered Wednesday in the capital.”

“Sacramento’s journey to recovery has ‘been a longer road that I thought,’ said Steve Smiley, a managing director for Hanley Wood. Smiley predicted that builders are likely to end this year with about 9,000 new home sales in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. That’s down considerably from his prediction a year ago that 2007 would end with up to 11,500 sales.”

“Through July, builders sold 5,068 homes in the six-county region, Hanley Wood reported, compared with 6,175 the first seven months of last year. During the recent housing boom, production peaked at nearly 18,000 homes in 2004.”

“Orange County economist and real estate agent Gary Watts predicted that if the Fed cuts continue, mortgage rates will fall on a majority of loans to 5.5 percent by Christmas.”

“Yet a real estate turnaround may be slower coming to Sacramento than other parts of California, he said. ‘It’s not going to happen overnight with you folks. It’s going to drag along for you a little longer than the rest of the state,’ Watts said.”

The Union. “A developer of a south county subdivision is downsizing his original housing project to meet the demands of a changing real estate market. The one-time luxury housing development is now being repackaged as a subdivision for smaller, lower-priced homes and senior apartment complexes.”

“Dave Snow, president of DAS Homes, is bypassing his original plan of two-story custom homes with pricey doors and granite countertops priced between $495,000 to $860,000 for smaller single-story homes with tile countertops priced at $450,000 to $600,000.”

“‘There’s a lot of people just as happy with tile countertops if it can save them money,’ said Mimi Simmons, who is handling sales for Saddle Ridge.”

“Snow said he will keep a watchful eye on the market, and if it continues to show stagnant signs, he would have to re-evaluate his plans for the site.”

“‘Ultimately it’s my responsibility to be open-minded and meet the demands of buyers. If the community needs housing, that’s our goal. I’m not going to build a project out if there’s no buyers,’ Snow said.”

The Orange County Register. “Sales contracts for new homes fell almost 40% in Orange County in July, led by a large drop in sales of new condominiums….according to Hanley Wood Market Intelligence of Costa Mesa.”

“Buyers signed 185 sales contracts in July, compared to 307 in July 2006, the research firm reported. It was the lowest monthly figure so far this year.”

“‘I think it was July where we really stated to feel the problems associated with the subprime (loans),’ Hughes said. ‘That affected the contracts.’”

“Condo sales dropped nearly 60%, falling to 55 units going into escrow. Buyers also signed 43 contracts to buy townhomes or ‘plexes’ (such as duplexes and triplexes), down 42% from a year ago.”

The Union Tribune. “Mortgage and real estate brokers say that the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut a key interest rate will help some homeowners pay off their bills instead of going into foreclosure.”

“But most say that the interest rate cuts and legislative reforms will not immediately revive the real estate market. Instead, home prices and sales will stagnate or decline deep into next year, with no recovery until late 2008 or early 2009, they say.”

“‘I believe the market will weaken more in the next few months, and it may weaken over the next year,’ said Gary London, president of the London Group of Realty Advisors in San Diego. ‘If the economy recesses, all bets are off,’ he said.”

“The White House yesterday appeared to soften its opposition to a congressional initiative that would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to temporarily buy, bundle and sell as securities loans exceeding $417,000.”

“Although such moves will benefit people hoping to buy into high-priced San Diego County, they will not spark a quick turnaround in the market, many mortgage and real estate brokers said.”

“‘This will help people coming into the market to buy homes,’ said Jan Wright, a San Diego real estate agent, who specializes in selling foreclosed or distressed properties. ‘But adjustable rates are going to go up no matter what. Anyone who has two-year, three-year or five-year adjustable notes is going to get hosed no matter what.’”

“‘The whole point of those products was to refinance when the home appreciates in value. But homes aren’t appreciating,’ she said.”

“Wright said she is seeing sharp cuts in home prices, which she expects to continue. She just helped sell a home for $350,000 that was purchased a year ago for $395,000.”

“‘The guy, who had a two-year adjustable rate note, was looking at a homeowner across the street who had just brought his sale price down by $200,000 and another neighbor who was going into default, and he figured he would sell his house and just rent until the market settled,’ Wright said.”

“Mary Otero Gonzalez, president and chief executive of the San Diego Home Loan Counseling and Education Center in North Park, said she didn’t believe the Federal Reserve’s action would help thousands of homeowners with little equity who are struggling to pay adjustable subprime loans.”

“‘If their loan is upside down – where they owe more than it is worth – it will be difficult for them to refinance,’ she said. ‘They probably won’t be able to.’”

The Voice of San Diego. “The success of the housing market earlier this decade inspired Californians, business-inclined and otherwise, to enter the industries tied to its booming ascent, even after it started to show signs of slowing.”

“But a plummeting number of home sales, dropping prices and increasing foreclosures have left the real estate-related industries reeling of late.”

“Local economist Alan Gin delivered a speech to a group of Realtors recently, telling them about the industry job losses in the county, and was shocked when the crowd began cheering.”

“‘It’s not good because we’ve got fewer jobs out there, but some people in the real estate industry might argue that it’s a good thing,’ Gin said. ‘Some people during the real estate boom just thought it was a way to make quick money.’”

“‘[The job loss] is almost a healthy thing,’ said Realtor Lynn LaBreche Hamilton. ‘It kind of weeds out people that maybe weren’t the strongest agents. Back then, everybody had a sister who sold real estate.’”

“One self-employed loan processor in North County who’s been in the industry for a dozen years said the slowdown in work means she’s headed for foreclosure on her own home. She asked to remain unnamed so that the few clients she still has don’t disappear entirely.”

“In 2005, she made $120,000 processing loans for several mortgage companies. Last year, her income was about one-third of that. And now, she said, her income has dwindled to almost nothing.”

“She made enough to buy a condo for $309,000 in 2005, and to rent office space for her business. Her monthly mortgage payment is $2,300, she said, nearly six times what she earned last month. She’s assessing her options to get out of the condo and thinks she will probably end up foreclosing on it and moving in with her boyfriend.”

“She moved to San Diego from Massachusetts with a degree in communications more than a dozen years ago. When she arrived, she did what she called the ‘move to San Diego and don’t know anyone’ jobs — assistant to a school photographer, door-to-door restaurant coupon sales. Those aren’t an option now, she said.”

“‘Absolutely not,’ she said. ‘I’m 40 years old — I’m not going back to selling coupons door to door.’”

“Mortgage processing was her ticket out of those jobs, so she believed. But her financial livelihood was doubly tied to the housing market, in her job and in her La Costa condo, which she doesn’t expect to get more than $260,000 for if she were to sell.”

“‘A lot of my colleagues that are in title companies are being laid off,’ he said. ‘Direct banks, lenders and other mortgage companies are closing down, because they don’t have the products anymore.’”

“And the people who were once flying high are stuck now, he said.”

“‘There were a lot of people who were making a lot of money and not doing much work,’ he said. ‘And now they’re realizing that they’re not going to make $10 or $15K a month at a regular job, even if they have a Ph.D., so it’s a reality check for them.’”

The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. “Vacancy rates for rental homes are the lowest in recent memory, thanks to record foreclosures in the Denver area, officials said Wednesday. In many cases, however, people are renting houses they can’t sell for a profit for less than their mortgage payment, said Robert Alldredge, owner of Jericho Properties, which manages properties.”

“‘People tell me this is their monthly mortgage payment, so they have to get at least this amount in rent, but I tell them it doesn’t work that way,’ Alldredge said.”

“It is better, he said, to lose $100 or $200 a month by renting a house, than to carry the entire mortgage payment. ‘It’s the difference between bleeding to death slowly, and hoping the market will turn around, and bleeding to death quickly,’ Alldredge said.”

From KOAA.com in Colorado. “As we’ve reported for months now, El Paso and Pueblo counties have run up some disturbing numbers when it comes to folks facing foreclosure or who have lost their homes. One local mortgage expert says the move may not help.”

“Mortgage Broker, Rebecca Hinds says, ‘El Paso County has serious foreclosure problem, Pueblo as well. Pueblo has one in 10 homes in foreclosure currently.’”

“So far in El Paso County this year, 3000 homes have gone into foreclosure. In all of 2006, there were about 3400 homes.”

“Hinds says; ‘Considering we are on the upslope of the adjustable rate mortgages getting ready to adjust. And we are already seeing the problem we’re having, this problem will only increase.’”

The Arizona Republic. “Foreclosures in metropolitan Phoenix climbed 36 percent in August, the biggest jump so far this year. Last month, 1,093 people lost their homes, according to the Information Market. It’s the first time Valley foreclosures have topped 1,000 in at least a decade.”

“Many more local residents are in danger of losing their homes. Notice of trustee sale filings, the precursor to a foreclosure, took their biggest jump this year. Those notices, filed when homeowners are at least a month behind, climbed 29 percent, to 3,203, in August.”

“It is hard to argue that the north Phoenix area has had a lot of foreclosures, but the number of them has, in some areas, gone up by factors of 10 or more.”

“Foreclosures are up and prices are down throughout the area. The numbers are closely tied, along with the number of sales and number of homes on the market.”

“Andrew Holm, a Realtor who works in northeast Phoenix and Scottsdale, says that with the record numbers of homes currently for sale, pressure still is on to reduce prices. Some homeowners are forced to walk away from their loans, he said.”

Frm KTAR.com in Arizona. “A budget shortfall is another side effect of mortgage mayhem and Governor Janet Napolitano says education money must be protected if Arizona is ever to escape the boom-and-bust cycles of the housing market.”

“‘We’re still too housing economy dependent. That’s why our economy has reacted so quickly to the sub-prime issue, to the housing bubble and all the rest,’ she said.”

“Senator Thayer Verschoor says he’s happy the governor has acknowledged there’s a serious problem. ‘From what it appears to me is that they recognize that it’s a bigger problem than they were thinking it was originally.’”

The Review Journal from Nevada. “Some major lenders have said they may stop or have already stopped making ’stated income’ loans because of the wording in Assembly Bill 440, which is intended to ensure that a borrower is able to repay a loan.”

“‘Stated income’ loans account for a quarter of all home loans in the state, and about half of the loans in the Las Vegas area, according to state officials and the Nevada Association of Mortgage Professionals.”

“Marcie Benvin, a Reno mortgage broker and president of the Nevada Association of Mortgage Professionals, said she hopes the efforts work because ‘we don’t have a lot of time left.’”

“‘People need to understand the gravity of the situation,’ Benvin said. ‘We’re hoping that the problem gets resolved before it turns into a bigger problem.’”

“The news is bad, but it’s not all bad, said Las Vegas housing analyst Dennis Smith.”

“‘Yeah, people are out of work, people are going to lose their homes. But it’s going to turn around,’ the president of Home Builders Research said. ‘I hope we’ll be talking about this as an educational experience two or three years from now.’”

“Home Builders Research reported 1,970 new home sales in August, a 39.9 percent decrease from the same month a year ago. Sales are down 43.6 percent for the year.”

“The median new home price rose 4 percent to $338,560, largely because of mid-rise and high-rise condos. The resale segment barely outperformed new homes, with 2,062 recorded escrow closings, down 43.4 percent from August 2006. The median price fell to $275,000 from $289,000 a year ago, or about 5 percent.”

“‘Just to remind these greedy (people) about the price drop, it’s all relative,’ Smith said. ‘It’s only dropped from last year and it’s higher than two years ago. It’s not that bad. It’s just bad today.’”

“The Las Vegas housing market experienced the lowest number of foreclosures this year in August, real estate consultant Steve Bottfeld of Marketing Solutions said. The 212 figure was nearly 500 less than July.”

“‘While that is cause for some optimism, it is too early to suggest that the foreclosure rate is slowing,’ Bottfeld said.”

“He urged caution in analyzing foreclosure numbers because existing home inventory has reached a record 27,321 and 46 percent of those units are vacant. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimated that investors defaulted on roughly one-third of Las Vegas properties in foreclosure.”

“Smith said the local housing market needs consistency and it has to start in the lending business. Over time, foreclosures should become a nonfactor. But first, lenders have to be willing to discount foreclosed properties more than they have, he said.”

“Meritage Homes recently lowered prices in some subdivisions by more than $50,000, Smith reported. KB Home is selling a 1,553-square-foot home for $174,990, or $112 a square foot, and a 1,898-square-foot home for $202,990, or $107 a square foot. Rhodes Homes is selling at $125 to $130 a square foot.”

“These prices seem to be ’setting the bottom’ of the value ratios for some of the major home builders in Las Vegas, Smith said.” “Robin Camacho of Direct Access Lending in Las Vegas said lenders are pulling the plug on stated income loans. It’s spreading in large part due to Assembly Bill 440 in the Legislature, she said.”

“‘Some people with homes in escrow right now will see their mortgage commitments disappear if they can’t close quickly. This is really going to hit our tip earners in Las Vegas the hardest. Everyone knows their income isn’t easy to verify,’ Camacho said.”

The Times Community reports on Virginia. “Fauquier County Supervisor Bill Downey all but stuck a fork in the 298-home Arrington Knolls proposal and declared it dead. Downey doesn’t believe the troubled project will survive Centex’s corporate ‘bean counters,’ whom he said want to minimize the company’s losses in a dismal housing market of historic proportions.”

“Three weeks ago, Centex abandoned its 358-home Freedom Place project in Bealeton, also without notice. It guaranteed Fauquier tens of million of dollars to improve public schools, roads and other infrastructure.”

“When Downey slammed the company for its ‘horrendous’ performance in Fauquier, Centex Division Manager Joseph Ricketts said: ‘You’re right, it’s been horrendous. The market’s been horrendous. We are truly in unchartered territories as far as what we have encountered….If you talk with people who have been with [Centex] since the early ’70s, this is the worst market that we’ve ever encountered.’”

“‘It’s all about economic sense. And that’s the reality we all live in in this country, Ricketts said. Centex probably should have abandoned the Freedom Place project sooner, Ricketts admitted. ‘We stretched out at Freedom Place for a long time,’ he said. ‘We held on and continued to spend money past the point that [we] probably should have.’”

The Roanoke Times from Virginia. “A lender has taken possession of a spacious $870,000 home in Hunting Hills in what real estate agents believe to be the largest residential foreclosure action taken in at least five years in the Roanoke region.”

“The loan default by the owner of the home in Roanoke County is one example of how the current spike in foreclosures is arcing across all income brackets.”

“Foreclosures have skyrocketed nationally and in Virginia. Foreclosures in Virginia were up 300 percent in July and up 900 percent in August from the same months of 2006, according to RealtyTrac.”

“William Crick, the former owner of the Hunting Hills home, agreed to an interest-only, adjustable-rate mortgage of $882,650 to purchase the Falcon Ridge address in June 2005, according to documents. Crick paid $909,950 for the property, which was newly built at nearly 6,000 square feet.”

“In the spring of 2006…Crick listed the Falcon Ridge address for sale at $1.15 million. The real estate market was peaking in mid-summer 2006, giving sellers the opportunity for the highest prices for their property of the market cycle.”

The Virginia Pilot. “In Virginia Beach, the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure, including notice of default and notice of trustee sale, jumped 25 percent in August to 100 filings.”

“Statewide, the number of home-owners receiving foreclosure notices last month jumped to 3,032, more than double the number in July.”

“The total number of homes in Virginia in some stage of foreclosure in August totaled 3,318 last month, a 95 percent increase from July. That was almost nine times the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure in August 2006.”

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. “Many sellers and agents are feeling, as they say in the real estate business, highly motivated in today’s market. They’re upping the ante by offering furniture, vacations, even the car in the driveway.”

“‘What I’m seeing is that a lot of sellers’ agents out there are calling buyers’ agents saying, ‘What can my seller do to close this deal? What kind of incentives are your buyers looking for?’ said Realtor Kerri Tkach.”

“A glut of homes on the market and a meltdown among mortgage lenders has created an environment where buyers often have the upper hand. In the Baltimore area there are far more sellers than buyers.”

“Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. reports that last month’s home sales plummeted around the region, dropping as much as 23 percent in Baltimore City and Howard County from August 2006.”

“Michael and Patricia McKinney recently purchased a home in the Phoenix area for about 10 percent less than the asking price. ‘The moment we started showing interest in places, the prices started coming down,’ said Michael. ‘The seller’s agent made it clear to my buyer’s agent that they were willing to negotiate.’”

The News & Observer from North Carolina. “Sales of existing homes in the Triangle fell last month as the worst national slump in 16 years continued to pinch the market. ‘What’s happened nationally has now caught up with North Carolina as a whole and Raleigh-Durham specifically,’ said Michael Helmar of Moody’s Economy.com, who tracks the Triangle housing market.”

“Even steeper declines are likely: The inventory of unsold houses is the highest in at least a year, up 20.9 percent from August 2006. Pending sales declined 15 percent, and showings were down 9 percent. The number of homes pulled off the market was up 39 percent, and the number of price drops was up 39 percent.”

“‘Total [Triangle] sales will probably be 10 percent to 15 percent off last year,” said Ross Rhudy, chief operating officer at one of the region’s largest residential brokerages.”

“One of Rhudy’s clients last week sold a home in the Washington, D.C., area for $590,000, though it cost $700,000 two years earlier. Sales will drop further because the fourth quarter traditionally is slow, and cheap mortgage loans in past years had satisfied demand for homes, he said.”

“‘We had such a strong run that put homes within reach of just about everyone,’ Rhudy said.”

“Buyers can’t expect much help from the Fed’s lowering of short-term lending rates. In fact, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose from 5.875 percent before Tuesday’s rate cut to about 6 percent afterwards, said Glen Astolfi, chief operating officer of DNJ Mortgage in Raleigh.”

“‘What the Fed did doesn’t help the mortgage problems we have,’ Astolfi said. ‘The guys with bad credit still have bad credit and still can’t get a loan. Foreclosures will continue to rise.’”

The Post & Courier from South Carolina. “While thousands of homes are for sale in the Charleston region, fewer people can afford to buy them because their wages are not keeping pace with prices.”

“That’s the message from the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Developers Council to more than 100 local business leaders.”

“Rising land costs and an influx of cash-flush newcomers who have sold homes in higher-priced areas, coupled with the recent housing boom, have pushed Charleston home prices to record levels.”

“‘Ten years ago, this was a relatively affordable market,’ said Tammie Hoy, executive director for the Lowcountry Housing Trust.”

“Local real estate agents say savvy buyers can find good deals in this market, but they added that many of the deepest price cuts are being offered in new communities that national home builders are developing in the outskirts of the region.”

Bloomberg reports on Florida. “Listings in the Orlando, Florida, area show 26,300 homes for sale, a 20-month supply, said Gary Balanoff, a real estate broker in Oviedo, Florida. ‘I’ve been in business 23 years, and I’ve never seen some of the price reductions we have here,’ Balanoff said. ‘It’s painful for people.’”

The Orlando Sentinel. “Orlando-based brokerage IDX Realty will auction off an estimated $100 million in property early next month in one of the largest local auctions of its kind in the slumping real estate sales market.”

“IDX broker Christopher Sampson said he has lined up sellers from Florida and four other states who want to unload their properties fast in a mega-sized, one-day sale.”

“Sampson said there have been lots of real estate auctions in the past and more announced every day because of the anemic sales environment, ‘but very few, if any, to this degree and magnitude involving so many properties at one time.’”

“The properties for sale run from vacant land and commercial buildings to multimillion-dollar estate homes.”

The Beacon. “Property owners in DeBary Golf & Country Club are using a new tool to speed up home sales in Volusia County’s slowed-down market. The tool is the auctioneer’s gavel.”

“Twenty luxury townhomes and two houses in the prime DeBary community will be sold to the highest bidders Thursday, Sept. 27, in an ‘absolute auction.’ Whatever the bid, no matter how low, each of the properties will be sold to the highest bidder.”

“Auctions are a growing trend in the real-estate market, as home prices continue to plunge and builders and developers become pressed to reduce excess inventory, said William Bone, whose company has been auctioning properties for over 30 years.”

The Miami Herald. “In another sign of the deteriorating housing market, South Florida builder Levitt Corp. said Tuesday it was cutting 200 jobs, more than a third of its workforce, and that it was suspending further lot development.”

“Fort Lauderdale-based Levitt also said in a regulatory filing that it was in discussions with its lender to amend terms of its loan agreements, including modifying the timing and amount of some of its payments.”

“‘The home building market in Florida just continues to deteriorate,’ Levitt CE Alan Levan told The Miami Herald., ‘We wouldn’t do it except for the fact that the economic reports suggest that this situation is going to last for sometime, possibly through 2009, 2010,’ Levan said.”

“Levan said the company had reduced prices and offered incentives, but it still wasn’t ‘attracting the level of buyers that create a sustainable model for some of these communities.’”

“‘This is the worst market that we’ve experienced in 25 years in home building,’ he said.”

The Sun Sentinel. “The decision to make the cuts was ‘gut-wrenching’ but necessary, said Levan, who also runs BankAtlantic Bancorp. Prices that some Levitt homes are selling for are ‘un-economic and below cost.’”

“Levitt and Sons will suspend lot development. It has reported more than $90 million in losses from decreases in the values of land and inventory during the past 18 months.”

“Levitt and Sons has built more than 200,000 homes throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and Europe since 1929. ‘Even the guys that have been mainstays aren’t immune to what’s been happening in the market,’ said David Levin, a Delray Beach-based housing analyst.”

From NBC 6. “Mortgage fraud is a growing problem in South Florida. The crime can cause you to lose money by affecting the price of your home and your property taxes.”

“Pete, whose identity NBC 6 is concealing, wanted $250,000 to sell his South Florida condo but he got a better offer. ‘I got a call from real estate agent who told me that he has a contract, an offer for $350,000,’ Pete said.”

‘”I asked him, ‘If I’m asking 250 and they offer 350, there’s got to be a catch.’” “Pete’s hunch was right. The buyer wanted $100,000 back at closing.”

“Pete said he was told the extra $100,000 was going to be used to renovate the condo, but he had already updated it. He contacted the Miami-Dade Police Department. ‘If the lender knew that money was going back to the purchaser, they would never do the loan,’ said Sgt. Richard Davis of Miami-Dade police.”

“Realtors said the fraud happens in unlikely places — neighborhoods in Coral Gables, Pinecrest, and pricey Gables by the Sea. ‘In a week’s time we might see more mortgage fraud offers than we do legitimate offers,’ said Realtor Beth Butler.”

“‘They usually will pick properties where you can get appraisals — properties to appraise higher than they’re actually worth,’ Butler said.”

The Tampa Tribune. “Florida’s foreclosure activity jumped 77 percent in August, compared with July, boosting its foreclosure rate to the third highest among all states. It was even worse in Tampa Bay, where foreclosure filings more than doubled.”

“In Florida, 33,932 foreclosures were filed in August. That’s a 106 percent increase from August 2006. In Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando counties, there were a combined 5,904 filings in August, up from 2,871 in July, RealtyTrac said.”

“There’s been a large jump in the number of people losing their homes. In the Bay area in August, 770 properties were taken over by lenders. That compared with 266 in July and just 38 during August 2006, according to RealtyTrac. Statewide, 2,364 properties were repossessed by lenders.”

“‘It’s alarming that number of properties are making it that far in the process,’ said Daren Blomquist, communications manager for RealtyTrac. ‘I think this shows that some people in danger of foreclosure now have fewer options to get rid of their homes.’”

The Naples News. “The downturn in the Southwest Florida real estate market should reverse itself by next year, a national economist told a gathering of Naples area Realtors and brokers Thursday.”

“‘The recovery will not be a robust recovery … but nonetheless it will be an improvement,’ said Lawrence Yun, senior economist at the National Association of Realtors. ‘What people experienced back during the (real estate) boom was a once-in-a-lifetime situation,’ he added.”

“Some local brokers who attended Yun’s talk blamed the media for giving the perception that the market is bad, which in turn hurts foreign investment who base real estate choices on media input. Others attributed the market downturn to the overzealous mortgage firms and the bottoming-out of subprime lending.”

“More stringent U.S. visa restrictions have also affected the number of foreigners investing in Naples real estate, according to Yun.”

“According to local real estate associate broker Birgit Wolf, ‘it was a good time to bring (Yun) in and give Realtors a bit more confidence.’ Foreign real estate investors are holding off on local investments now ‘because of the media’ according to Wolf, who has been an area Realtor for six years.”

“Other Realtors said that investors were the ones who needed the reassurance, not their real estate agents. ‘Everybody is sort of not knowing what is going to happen next and how far we’re going to have to wait until the market turns,’ said Hilda Díaz-Perera, a local broker who attended Yun’s speech.”

“‘I think we have the subprime rate that really killed us, because investors don’t have any confidence at all,’ she added. ‘There is no confidence. They don’t want to put their money in real estate.’”

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