The Housing Bubble

How about the housing market in your neck of the woods? Post any observations or media sources that you want to share; open houses, anecdotal items, etc. Some readers posted these in the topics thread. “The radio spots that are STILL played by mortgage brokers. Hayes Barnard of Paramont Equity is the worst. His newest is ‘the average SD home appreciated nearly 40k last year! You have the power for financial freedom to pay off debt with this new found equity’ Like 40k is just like your car keys or that $10 bill in your pants back pocket.”

“Are sellers including ‘freebees’ in your area? (Cars, vacations, plasma TV’s, ganite counter tops)? Here in Irvine, (Orange County) California, the Irvine Public Schools Foundation is including a BMW 750Li in an ‘early bird’ drawing as part of its annual house raffle. That’s a first.”

Another said, “I’d like comments from owners/rentors who actually live in these hi-rise condos so we could have first hand knowledge of the pros and cons.” This reader noticed a change. “Is the tightening up of credit/liquidity being felt by consumers in areas other than mortgages?”

“I pondered this last night when I took my junk mail and fed it to my shredder. Looking at the unsolicited credit card offers, I noticed that the quality of the offers (Balance transfer terms and CCard terms) seems to be way down in the last few months.”

“I’ve got the kind of credit profile that gets great offers by the ton (only 3 cards, plenty of activity (use Amex for everything I can), almost no debt, fico mid-800’s, flawless histories) so I’m wondering why the change. As a single sample, this could be because something has changed in my credit reports. (Though it shouldn’t have - I’m going to get updated reports to make sure nothing funny has happened).”

“On the other hand, If I am not alone in seeing this trend, does that mean that lenders are anticipating tougher times and reduced consumer spending ahead? That would likely mean more people using their offers just to transfer balances back-and-forth to keep rates and payments down, and less new purchase spending.”

To which another responded, “But that’s a good thing, right? I get tired of receiving all that mail. I’m just messin’ with ya. I understand your observation and it’s worthy of note. I agree it would be interesting if the lack of is related.”