The Housing Bubble

The Shawnee News Star reports from Oklahoma. “The Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering a rule that will require borrowers to have a 20 percent down payment before qualifying for a home loan, realtors said. The regulation could have a negative impact on the Shawnee housing market, Realtor Nancy Jackson said. ‘The last couple of years a large portion of the loans obtained in Potawattomie County have been much lower down payment loans or no down payment loans,’ she said.”

The Greater Tulsa Reporter in Oklahoma. “When driving around the Tulsa metro region one thing that stands out is the number of ‘For Sale’ signs on lawns. Some properties however, provoke curiosity because it’s not readily apparent that they are for sale. These are the homes that from all appearances are standing empty, absent of ‘For Sale’ signs, with weedy, overgrown lawns in need of a mow. As weeks go by more of these properties are beginning to dot Tulsa’s landscape. One wonders, ‘What’s going on?’”

“According to Steve Currington, president, Currington Mortgage, ‘Around the Tulsa area there are properties that look like they’ve been recently abandoned, but this is usually not the case.’ Currington explains that homeowners who experience in foreclosure have vacated their homes and the properties often go into a short sale. The reason the homes stand empty for so long is due to administrative bureaucracy. ‘Many times a buyer will make an offer to a bank on a short sale property and it takes the bank 90 days to respond, and some of the bigger banks are so busy they never respond to the short sale offer.’”

“The result is homes continue to stand empty and lawns become more unkempt and overgrown with weeds, unless the bank that owns the property ensures the lawn is maintained. Eventually these properties go up for auction at a Sheriff’s sale, says Currington. If no one buys the home at the auction the bank will buy it back. It will continue to sit empty until someone buys it.”

The American Statesman in Texas. “As Austin’s skyline underwent a momentous change during the past decade, some Austinites wondered whether there would be enough people to fill all the new towers adding hundreds of residential units downtown. Judging by the latest condominium sales figures, the towers are filling surprisingly well, given their high price points, experts say, and demand for downtown living is continuing.”

“From January through September, buyers purchased and moved into 251 units in the four newest downtown projects — the Four Seasons Residences, Spring, the Austonian and the W Residences — and the largest condo project just outside of downtown, Barton Place, according to Austin-based Capitol Market Research, which tracks the market. That compares with 198 closings at those projects during 2010, said Charles Heimsath, the Capitol Market Research’s president.”

“While experts say the sales numbers are relatively healthy, the downtown market wasn’t immune to the economic downturn. To date, 548 of the 992 units in those five complexes — 55 percent — have been sold. From June through September, there were 51 condominium sales in the four downtown projects — excluding Barton Place — totaling $55 million, for an average price of just more than $1 million each, Heimsath said.”

“To put the 51 sales in context, there were 85 single-family homes sold in the entire Austin area for the same four-month period, Heimsath said.”

“Alan Holt is known for his success in selling condo units. Holt, a real estate agent for 19 years, said that ‘there’s just so much more to downtown to draw buyers than there was even in 2005-2006. We’re not in any type of euphoric market. … We’re in a pretty healthy, balanced market. You don’t want it lopsided towards the seller or buyer, and I think that’s what we have, and that’s sustainable.’”

“Though Austin has not been immune to the broader economic downturn, ‘we have a growing, dynamic economy and are getting a lot of things right,’ Holt said. ‘Whether it’s companies or individuals, everybody it seems like wants to live in Austin,’ he said, noting that the Four Seasons project is seeing interest from prospective buyers from across the globe.”

The Express News in Texas. “Everyone knew the recession and housing bust took a toll on the real estate development industry in San Antonio. Now an economist has put a number on the pain: the loss of almost 23,000 direct and indirect jobs. During the mid-decade boom a few years ago, real estate development employed and supported more than 142,600 jobs in the San Antonio area. That number as of last year had dropped to about 119,700 jobs, said Jon Hockenyos of the Austin-based TXP.”

“Hockenyos first did a study about the impact of the local real estate development economy in 2001 at the request of developer Gene Powell. Ramiro Cavazos, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he was surprised after the 2001 study at the size of the local industry, and he wasn’t alone. ‘It was a shock to a lot of people outside of the industry,’ he said.”

The Monitor in Texas. “The home sales in the McAllen area will not see noticeable growth until 2013 and 2014, said Jim Gaines, research economist in housing markets for the Texas A&M Real Estate Center. In 2006 and 2007, home sales and prices peaked in the area, but after that the sales started to fall. ‘The market is going back to what it was before we had the unusual housing boom and then the big downturn,’ Gaines said.”

The Clarion Ledger in Mississippi. “For most communities, vacancy rates have risen since 2000, and the share of rentals versus owner-occupied homes has spiraled. Vacancy rates reflect the health of housing markets. Mississippi’s - 11.6 percent - was the seventh highest in the nation in 2010. In Jackson, the 13.4 percent vacancy rate represented more than 10,000 empty units.”

“That’s also a reflection of more stringent lending rules laid down by the federal government and timid banks, said Bill Hetrick, associate broker and Realtor with Jackson-area Re/Max Alliance. ‘The government had a knee-jerk reaction to the housing crisis; now there are so many safeguards in place, it’s like they dumped a quart of glue into an engine; it’s really gummed up now.’”

“‘Several years ago, if you could fog a mirror, you could get a mortgage. Now, the pendulum has swung a million miles in the other direction. So I have a lot more calls from people who are looking to rent rather than buy. And so many have lost their homes in foreclosures, or had to sell them to get out from under one financial issue or another,’ he said.”

“No one knows when the demand for homes will recover, but this is clear: The housing boom in the early 2000s wasn’t ‘reality,’ Hetrick said. ‘This may not be reality either, but that certainly wasn’t.’”

My New Orleans in Louisiana. “These days, we have a new influx of famous people along with the ones who are permanently woven into the fabric of this great city. What can you say about Nic Cage? He’s just so interesting (i.e., crazy) and it seems like if you talk to any of the bartenders around here, they all have a story about him. Every single one.”

“He bought the old LaLaurie House in the Quarter but he didn’t live there… he only ‘entertained’ there. Could you imagine having so many houses that you only use some of them for entertaining purposes? But he didn’t own it for long because it went into foreclosure.”