The Housing Bubble

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “More than 200 acres of land on Port Washington’s south side once owned by Brookfield developer Vincent Kuttemperoor has been taken over by Waukesha State Bank, which is marketing the property. The property made up a significant portion of what was once Kuttemperoor’s dream of a massive, high-end subdivision that would have ultimately spanned roughly 800 acres and redefined Port Washington — a dream that now seems dead. ‘A lot of it was probably used as collateral for other projects, especially the Florida development,’ Randy Tetzlaff, the city’s director of planning and development, said, referring to Kuttemperoor’s ill-fated Treviso Bay subdivision in Naples, Fla.”

“‘If VK came in today, the vision would be different,’ Tetzlaff said. ‘There’s no market for the large houses he envisioned.’”

“Housing Works has completed the purchase of 19 foreclosed Redmond townhomes, using federal neighborhood stabilization funding, Executive Director Cyndy Cook announced. Redmond City Manager David Brandt said, ‘The key objective was to revitalize a neighborhood that had quite frankly grown too fast in the boom years and had been left to ruin in the succeeding bust years.’”

“Local Realtor Carol Engler believes the Yuma-area housing market is over the worst of the real estate crash and prices will start to rebound. ‘People talk about dropping prices, but they’re comparing them to 2005 to 2007.’ Engler said. However, today’s prices are in line with what they were earlier in the decade before the real estate bubble, she said. ‘The years 2005 to 2007 were the anomaly … the exception, not the rule.’”

“Many Arizona homeowners underwater with their mortgages are anxiously awaiting more information on how they can lower their interest rates and payments through the expansion of the government’s Housing Affordable Refinance Program. Phoenix-area homeowner Marla Griggs knows she’s not eligible for the refinancing program but is coming up on the end of the five-year point of her option-adjustable mortgage. The loan is not owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and she wants to know her options for keeping her home by refinancing and lowering her payment.”

“‘Many people are not eligible for this program. Why can’t it be applied to all mortgages?’ she asks.”

“Out of work for nearly two years, possibly on the verge of losing his home to foreclosure, Clay McRae walked in the front door of the nonprofit early Monday in pursuit of help, something a surprisingly large number of Nevadans have failed to do this past year. The 57-year-old native of Canada doesn’t want to walk away from the North Las Vegas home he bought in 2009 for $125,000, even though it’s worth just $70,000 today. ‘I’m just here to see if somebody can help me save my house until I find a job,’ he says.”

“At least half of all Nevadans qualify for ’some sort of program,’ notes Consumer Credit Counseling President Michelle Johnson. ‘It’s really a case of the homeowner self-eliminating themselves from applying,’ she says. ‘Then again, maybe I’m kidding myself.’”

“Britain’s venerable magazine The Economist says Canada is one of nine countries in the world where housing is overvalued by 25 per cent or more right now — and among four where prices are in line with those in the U.S. ‘at the peak of its bubble.’ The others are France, Australia and Belgium, it says under a headline that claims ‘the bursting of the global economic bubble is only halfway through.’”

“The Economist notes that much of the world’s economic woes can be traced back to years of unprecedented growth in house prices in countries such as the United States and Ireland, culminating with ‘the bursting of the biggest bubble in history.’ It’s the B-word being heard halfway around the world.”

“Real estate watcher Ben Myers of Toronto’s Urbanation called The Economist’s methodology ‘flawed,’ saying it’s too simplistic to properly assess the health of a market as regionally varied as Canada’s. It also doesn’t take into account how the strength of our banking sector has made Canada a safe haven for investors looking to buy up hard assets like real estate. It’s estimated that some 45 to 60 per cent of the 43,000 condos now under construction across the GTA have been pre-purchased by investors, most of whom intend to hold and rent them out.”

“The sale of the remaining units at the $170 million Muskoka Wharf redevelopment is the first major property auction in the Toronto area since the real estate downturn of the 1990s. Bids for the studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with kitchens — which are rented out to hotel guests when owners aren’t using them the maximum 35 days a year — are starting at $85,000 and estimated to be worth up to $375,000.”

“The problem, says Muskoka-area realtor Anita Latner, is that hotel-condo units — while commonplace in western ski resorts like Whistler — are a relatively new beast in cottage country. Potential buyers want a place where they can swim whenever they want, even if these hotel-condos are an affordable alternative to $500,000 starter cottages in what she calls an area of ‘the haves and have mores.’ ‘No one expects a unit there to go for (just) $85,000,’ she says, ‘but we all know when you put on a red dress, you’re going to get a lot of attention.’”

“A boarded up home on Miriam Lane is one of the latest casualties in a brutal economy that has taken its toll on homeowners across metro Atlanta. Commissioners are considering a measure that would lengthen the time it would take for lenders to foreclose on properties and evict families from their houses. Melodie Moss owns a home across the street from the boarded house on Miriam Lane. Moss worries that homes like that, lost to foreclosure, could erode the rest of her neighborhood with it. ‘It takes down our property value first of all, and therefore it makes us upside down in our property,’ Moss said.”

“The little blue house that sits on the west side of the 3200 block of Woodward SW in Wyoming is a symbol of what’s happened in many neighborhoods during the foreclosure crisis. Surrounded by rows of small, well-kept homes and apartment buildings, the home has shredded pieces of tarp covering portions of the roof and plywood covering the windows.”

“Michael Dannah’s put up with it. ‘It’s an eyesore. Look at it,’ Dannah said. ‘It looks like something a witch would live in. I mean, can you imagine the value of the houses around here? They’re just dropping.’”

“‘We all work through the week, so this is what we do on the weekend,’ Monique White explained for news cameras capturing a Sunday barbeque event for about 100 Occupy Minnesota protesters and neighborhood friends.”

“Various protesters point out that many mortgages are for much more than homes are worth in today’s deflated market. They reason that the banks should at least recalculate to take that into account. For example, White’s purchase price in 2003 was $127,000, her taxable value according to city records is $84,500, and a similar house nearby recently sold for $85,000. Brad German of Freddie Mac said White turned down an offer of ‘cash for keys’ in which she would be paid to vacate.”

“Rosemary Williams, who lost her home in a similar situation, said, ‘They took my home but not my dignity.’ She has traveled even to Europe talking about this cause.”

“‘Now that occupying random city parks has not gained much traction, we’ve decided to play what we want,’ was how Jack FM, the faux independent radio station put it Wednesday night. It’s a twist on the station’s signature line, pokes fun at the Occupy movement, and also plays into the ennui over the economy, as if nothing serious will get done so let’s get back to listening to familiar Cars songs.”

“Likewise, Internet comments the day after protesters were forcibly removed from L.A. City Hall’s south lawn evoked a similar cynical tone. ‘I have no idea what is being achieved with this,’ wrote one poster. When Occupy L.A. organizer Mario Brito explained how the movement would switch focus to helping homeowners who’ve lost their homes to foreclosure and holding sit-ins at banks, one commenter wrote: ‘Sounds like a classic case of good luck.’”

“Yamilet Valladolid, who runs the El Concilio Council for the Spanish Speaking in Modesto, is convinced the mortgage industry took particular advantage of Latinos. During the housing boom, Valladolid was a Bank of America assistant manager, where she worked with many prospective Latino borrowers who wanted to buy or refinance homes. ‘I remember so many clients being mad at me,’ Valladolid said about her time at BofA. ‘Borrowers didn’t like to hear that they only qualified for a $100,000 mortgage based on their income. They would tell me, ‘Well, Juan next door says he can get me $300,000.’ So they would go to him.’”

“Price deflation in the California housing market continues. And nobody seems to know where the floor is, at least in the Case-Shiller cities. In fact, it’s not even clear that a floor there would have any meaning. Prices could plunge right through it, then enter the basement before piercing the Earth’s crust, then the mantle, then the core. ”

“After that, they will enter the eighth of ninth circles of the underworld (see Dante’s Inferno), where they will be bathed in fire. Seriously, given the magnitude of the downturn, there are days when you really do think that housing prices in California, away from the coast, could drop to zero.”