The Housing Bubble

FYI….. Those rent figures for Christchurch are per week, not per month. That gives you an idea of how absurdly expensive rent has become in NZ. It’s the same here in Australia.

Also, Christchurch suffered through a massive earthquake a few years back, which rendered much of its downtown area uninhabitable. You would think that fortunate landlords of habitable homes would be able to name their price. Nope.

‘New condo prices edged down in May in one notoriously expensive market, according to a new report by the Mark Co.—namely San Francisco—and two fairly high-priced ones: downtown Seattle and downtown Los Angeles. Even so, San Francisco and downtown LA recorded year-over-year price increases, while downtown Seattle was unchanged, the company noted.’

‘The company’s San Francisco Condominium Pricing Index for May was $1,263 per square foot, a drop of 2 percent from last month, but 12 percent higher than the same month a year ago. New construction inventory decreased 14 percent from last month, while still 99 percent higher than one year ago—in effect doubling over the course of the year, indicating that developers are eager for a piece of the action in this high-priced market.’

‘Another expensive market, downtown Seattle, had a Condominium Pricing Index for May that came in at $771 per square foot, marking a decrease of 2 percent from the previous month; there was no change compared with 2014. New construction inventory in the market declined by 6 percent last month, but remains a whopping 123 percent higher—more than double—compared with last year.’

‘The Downtown Los Angeles Pricing Index for May was $739 per square foot, marking a 1 percent decline from last month and the third monthly decline. Despite the recent drop, the Index remained 10 percent higher than the same period last year. New construction inventory was unchanged from last month, but about 1,622 percent higher than one year ago. (In short, there was almost nothing going on then, and now there is.)’

Redmond, WA Housing Plunge 7% YoY As Inventory Balloons 85%

http://www.movoto.com/redmond-wa/market-trends/

““Prices of real estate started their dramatic rise in or near 1997 with the decline beginning in 2006.”

There’s that problematic window of time again.

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/7812/caseshiller.jpg

Crushing.Housing.Losses

https://youtu.be/kK62tfoCmuQ

Happy Friday!

‘A brand new apartment building on Booth Avenue in Labrador City sits empty, not a single resident in any of the modern units.’

‘The apartment complex was rebuilt after it was gutted by fire in 2012, at a time when the community faced a housing crunch and desperately needed new accommodations for the many workers and their families moving to Labrador West as the local mining industry boomed.’

‘Today, the empty building speaks to the abrupt reversal of fortunes for the community of 10,000 people as it endures the hardships of an economic downturn due to the whims of global iron ore markets.’

‘On the surface, the neighbouring communities of Labrador City and Wabush look prosperous: new homes, new vehicles, a new college campus, major retail outlets and restaurant franchises, as well as an array of new and expanded recreational facilities such as a popular skateboard park. But the outward appearance of prosperity masks the stark realities of a region experiencing an unprecedented economic bust, something that becomes apparent from the many ‘for sale’ signs on residential properties.’

‘Jason Penney, president of United Steelworkers local 6285, representing workers at Wabush Mines, says the mine’s closure was sudden and that the union was mostly in the dark about what was coming. “February 12, 2014, we got a call to go into a meeting there about 1 o’clock,” says Penney. “They showed up with their lunch cans to go to work, and they were told that they didn’t have a job anymore. Go home. So it was quite a shock.”

“A lot of our membership, probably 60 per cent or greater, I’d say, had five years seniority or less,” says Penney. “They had no choice but to come in here and purchase a home. At the time there was a housing crunch, to say the least, and to rent anything here, a regular small three-bedroom bungalow was being rented out for $3,000 and $4,000 a month. The only people who could afford to pay those kind of rents were the companies that were bringing in the fly in–fly out workers. If you wanted to actually live here and work in the mine full time, you had no option but to choose to purchase a house, and at the time they were $300,000 to $400,000, and even up to around $500,000. So a lot of people bought those homes and now, with the uncertainty and the two mines in the area closing, there’s nothing selling.”

‘The lack of access to formal credit along with high priced home loans and debt, leave the bottom of the housing market pyramid with little more than squatter colonies, urban slums and unauthorised settlements by way of affordable accommodation options.’

‘To tackle this enormous shortage that is expected to accelerate with rising migrant population movements to urban areas, MoHUPA has been focusing on an affordable housing policy that includes a rental housing interventions programme.’

‘Despite a housing shortage of approximately 19 million units, around 10.2 million completed houses are also lying vacant across urban India.’

BTW, these vacant units in India are new, FWIU, and priced way higher than what people can afford. Bubbles manifest themselves in various ways.

‘The CFA Institute has singled out mis-selling of financial products as one of the top challenges facing the Chinese financial market. Among market misconduct in China, Mr. Smith singled out mis-selling of financial products as an issue which could have broader implications on investors’ asset allocation decisions.’

“It affects the general public’s confidence in the financial services world, and if China is to develop, people need to have trust in their banks, in their insurance companies and in their asset management companies,” Mr. Smith pointed out. “Trust in a financial services world is absolutely vital and mis-selling of products really destroys trust.”

‘Mr. Smith reasoned that investors would probably take excessive exposure to property or gold, or move their money out of their country, if they did not have enough faith in domestic financial institutions.’

‘Financial mis-selling generally refers to the practice of a salesperson misleading an investor about the characteristics of a product. Mr. Smith believes the problem in China is that the risks of the products may not be clearly understood by the buyers. In particular, he said Chinese investors are not familiar with the credit risk of products given the lack of precedent for defaults in the country.’

“It is very hard to educate people about credit risk if nothing ever collapses. You know the market is based on the fact that credit risk doesn’t exist at the moment, and that is just not true,” Mr. Smith reasoned.’

‘There has long been a perception that the Chinese authorities will rescue cash-strapped debt issuers in order to avoid defaults, which could raise questions about credit quality in China. Nevertheless, there have recently been more Chinese companies failing to meet payment obligations since the first corporate debt default, signaling a larger tolerance on credit default by Chinese policymakers.’

‘Mr. Smith believes the mis-selling problem boils down to the lack of education in terms of both investors and salespeople. “A lot of these products are not particularly complicated, but you need to think it through, and people don’t think it through, and don’t read the documents because they don’t think there is any downside,” he added.’

‘Chinese language signs urge buyers to buy into Sydney real estate’

‘Canny real estate agents are advertising Sydney property in Mandarin, hoping to exclusively appeal to cashed-up Chinese buyers. Despite the looming fear Sydney’s housing bubble is set to burst, agents are ­continuing to invest in marketing to Chinese-Australians, erecting advertising signs in Mandarin only, and hiring buyer’s agents who speak the language.’

‘One agent advertising in the city’s inner northwest — where some suburbs have a Chinese population of more than 30 per cent — has a billboard in Mandarin at the busy Rhodes train station. The sign for of LJ Hooker Rhodes agent Tim Wu, urges locals in Mandarin to consider his agency as their first choice.’

‘A spokesman for the agency said Mr Wu advertised his buying and selling skills on Chinese and English billboards, but would not elaborate on why it was necessary to post some signs entirely in Mandarin.’

‘How to fix Philly’s massive vacant land problem’

‘Crammed into tiny Duffield Street in Frankford, Arway Linens has supplied the city’s booming culinary scene with freshly laundered napkins, tablecloths and uniforms since 1979. In a neighborhood that’s watched the flight of industry for decades, Arway has held out. Three years ago, it even started looking to buy more land to accommodate its growing delivery needs.’

‘Arway’s chief engineer Jay Elliot saw a solution to the company’s growing pains staring back at him every time he stepped onto the company loading docks: Three of Philadelphia’s nearly 40,000 vacant lots sit empty directly across the street.’

“It’s three lots right in a row. They would allow our trucks move more freely and handle overflow parking… . The houses there were torn down 10 years ago,” Elliot said. “They’re sitting vacant and not getting any tax revenue for the city. The city comes and mows them, so they’re actually putting more money into them than they’re getting out.”

‘With Staten Island homes selling more quickly this year than last year and home prices rising to near pre-recession levels, the summer housing market is already heating up and has promise to be red hot.’

‘Island Realtors say anyone thinking of selling their home should “list it now,” as homes are selling for “asking prices,” and are receiving multiple offers, said Claire Bisignano Chesnoff, broker/owner of the New Dorp-based Claire Properties.’

“Sellers are at a point where they can get such top dollar for their homes if they’ve been kept in good condition and they are being reasonable about what their house is worth,” said Ms. Chesnoff.’

“There are bidding wars going on. Buyers have to worry that if they get an acceptance on an offer and don’t get into contract quick enough that there will be a back-up offer. The back-up offer can take the accepted offer off the table,” she added.’

‘Due to low interest rates, the market is also prime for buyers. The good news for sellers is that homes are selling for higher prices than they were last year. The average list price for May is $551,000, which is up 11 percent over last May, said Profaci.’

‘Due to the North Shore renaissance, the condominium market is heating up more than ever. “We have some homes (in St. George) that were selling in November of 2014 for $95,000 and are now selling for $140,000,” said Ms. Volsario.’

‘On a swath of former farmland on the south side of Bozeman, a perimeter of massive, three-story apartment buildings is rising.’

‘The complex, Stadium View Apartments, will soon house nearly 500 renters, most likely to be attending Montana State University just a short walk away. Watching workers traverse the site in trucks dwarfed by sharply angled roofs, it’s hard to believe that number isn’t higher.’

‘Stadium View is one of several rental housing projects in progress around the city as the Gallatin Valley’s economy climbs out of the Great Recession. The city issued permits for 425 apartments and townhomes in 2014 — down a bit from 542 in 2013 but a drastic increase from 39 in 2011, a year MSU enrolled more than 800 additional students.’

“We have an awful lot of multi-family housing coming online,” said Wendy Thomas, the city’s planning director.’

‘Utah enjoys a booming tourism industry, an up-and-coming tech sector and a growing population — adding up to big business for Realtor Ryan Kirkham. The 20-year real estate veteran who lives near Salt Lake City said that every house his clients have bid on in the past few weeks has had multiple offers. Some have had up to a dozen. And he said that he hasn’t yet this year had to deal with a short-sale, a tool homeowners use when they are in distress.;

“Even though the competition is kind of crazy, I hope that it’s crazy and robust because of good factors that are driving it and not just speculation and bad loans,” said Kirkham, who also heads the Utah Association of Realtors.;

‘Kirkham said that many buyers are interested in moderately priced townhomes and condos. High-end homes over $750,000 — roughly three times Utah’s median price — are not moving as quickly, he said.’

‘American homes are getting bigger, swankier and stuffed with bathrooms, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Characteristics of New Housing report showed this week. More than 45% of the 620,000 new, single-family homes completed last year had four or more bedrooms, and more than one-third had at least three bathrooms, the report revealed.’

‘To fit all of those amenities into the homes, builders expanded their square footage to a median of 2,453, up 10% since a decade ago. The average selling price was $345,800. The median size of a new single-family home sold was 2,506 square feet.’

‘The 2014 price and amenities confirm that homebuilders are going after buyers with money as they wait for reluctant millennials to join the homeowner ranks by purchasing their first abodes.’

‘An earlier Commerce Department report noted that more homes sold for $400,000-plus than for less than $200,000 last year. And The Wall Street Journal reported that 4.8% of homes sold last year for $750,000 or more.’

‘Drew Reading, a Bloomberg analyst, said the market won’t be able to sustain the high average price point for long. “They’re losing pricing now,” Reading told Bloomberg of luxury homebuilders, “so they’re moving toward volume to drive profit.”

‘In fact, the national median home price in the first quarter of 2015 was $210,000, down $5,000 from the prior quarter, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index reported last month.’

‘A wave of riots and protests swept across China’s industrial cities in 2008 and 2009, of which the unrest at Tonghua was just one example, but they have largely faded from memory in the West. The massive stimulus program deployed by Beijing, one that was more than twice the relative size of America’s rescue plan, worked exactly as it was supposed to: It reignited growth and put China’s expanding army of restless unemployed back to work.’

‘For the surprisingly large number of Western business types who hold that China’s model of centralized economic planning is superior to the plodding inefficiency of capitalist liberal democracies, China’s speedy response only strengthened their conviction. “What we’re seeing is that the Chinese command-and-control system can actually work more effectively than other market-based systems in times of economic stress,” the Asia chief for investment bank Morgan Stanley, Stephen Roach, gushed to Newsweek in 2009.’

‘And yet now, a mere six years later, central command in Beijing once again finds itself faced with rising labour unrest as the life sputters out of the Middle Kingdom’s economy. In the first five months of 2015, there were triple the number of labour strikes as in the same period in 2014, according to data from the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, while mass protests by workers against layoffs are on the rise.’

‘This time, however, the blunt tools policy-makers once deployed are no longer an option. The stimulus may have kept factories open, but wasteful investment spending spawned massive oversupply of capacity in many industrial sectors, created credit and housing bubbles that make even 2005-era America look thrifty and left China at risk of a Japanese-style lost decade of deflation.’

‘Christopher Balding, an associate business professor at Peking University in Shenzhen, recently suggested that China’s true GDP growth may be no more than one to three per cent.’

‘At the same time, China, a country that came to be known as the world’s factory floor last decade thanks to its seemingly endless supply of cheap labour, now finds itself priced out of the market due to rising labour costs. Higher wages are a good thing if they can be sustained. But to the extent that they’re a by-product of artificially induced investment, higher labour costs may do more harm than good as companies turn to cheaper rivals like Mexico and Vietnam.’

‘And yet officials’ hands are tied. Pursue stimulus to revive the economy and they will inflate China’s already crippling debt bubble; push ahead with reforms to liberalize the economy and they risk labour unrest becoming even worse than it was in 2008-09, posing an existential threat to the Communist Party.’

‘That China finds itself back in this bind so soon is yet further evidence that so much of China’s manufactured economic miracle was merely a mirage.’

‘China has experienced the most rapid urbanisation in human history - it is said to have used more cement in 2011-2013 than the US did in the entire 20th century, and built twice as many homes in the decade to 2010 as exist in Britain in total.’

‘Over the same period home prices in major cities tripled, and many residential buyers snapped up apartments before a stone was laid.’

‘Property developers enlisted an army of artisans to make tiny, often extremely detailed models of houses for their glitzy showrooms, sparking a parallel frenzy of small-scale construction. In the face of an extended downturn after a decade-long property boom, China’s miniature apartment builders are finally downsizing their ambitions.’

“Developers used home buyers to fund their projects, and using models of houses to be built was one way for them to resolve their funding problem,” said Zhu Guozhong, an economist at Peking University. “You could sell a house just based on the model.”

‘Now demand for both real accommodation and its scaled-down equivalent has shrivelled. Property prices in major cities have fallen for 10 of the last 12 months, leaving developers with a hangover of empty properties and half-built complexes, and putting new projects on hold.’

“Business has been tough for the last couple of years,” said modelmaker Zhong Zhaoping, who started out as a trainee 15 years ago and now has his own firm in the southern city of Guangzhou. “It’s because of the fall in housing prices, which makes people scared to buy.”

‘He has had to lay off around half the staff at his dilapidated factory.’

‘Though Beijing has repeatedly cut interest rates and freed banks to lend more, that has done more to fuel debt-funded stock market speculation than spur productive investment.
The resilience of the stock market surge is in part a recognition that government will have to keep injecting fresh cash, since nearly every indicator of economic performance has been lacklustre or worse in 2015, with manufacturing output sliding, deflationary pressure rising, and demand weak both at home and abroad.’

‘Unemployment, a key benchmark of social stability, remains low at around 4%, but even officials doubt the reliability of that figure. Private surveys show rising unemployment stress, and local governments are moving to protect jobs at state-owned enterprises.’

‘Officially, non-performing loans remain manageable at below 2%, but most analysts believe real rates are far higher, since many firms and local governments tapped the opaque shadow banking market.’

‘Reopening universities and allowing private ownership in real estate and business unleashed the aspirations of 1.3bn Chinese, fuelling decades of double-digit growth.
But now China’s economy is more complex, more market-driven and more exposed to overseas factors, reform is a riskier balancing act.’

“The problem is, there are two sets of reforms that have to take place,” said Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Guanghua School of Management in Beijing. “The first set of reforms was to remove the sources of the imbalances: the undervalued currency, low wage growth related to productivity growth, and finally financial repression.”

‘Those are largely sorted, he said, but the next phase is to transform an economy based on investment into one driven by domestic consumption. “If investment goes down, unemployment pressure increases,” he said, which drags on consumption just when you need it to rise.’

‘Much of China’s current malaise is attributable to the end of the real estate boom, which Beijing encouraged to redirect capital away from an overheated sector. But that slowdown hit related sectors such as steel, glass and furniture, cut revenues for local governments dependent on land sales, and continues to drag on growth.’

“There are 55mn empty housing units in China,” said China economist Nicholas Lardy. “These aren’t doing anything (for the economy).”

Is the London bubble starting to burst?

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/house-prices-plummeting-in-londons-most-expensive-boroughs-but-going-up-in-the-suburbs-10315766.html

‘For the past year or so, James Packer has been snubbed by Chinese punters, who for years were so enamoured with his Macau gambling dens that he eventually built three of them. After plummeting 40 per cent last year, revenues for the year so far are down a further 37 per cent.’

‘It’s not just our James and his good mate Lawrence Ho suffering either. All the Macau casino operators have seen their earnings decimated, with the industry notching up 11 straight months of heavy declines, and now dropping to a mere $US3 billion a month.’

‘The reason? The Chinese government has cracked down on corruption. Money laundering has come under the watchful gaze of Beijing.’

‘Perhaps it’s a huge coincidence. But the casino crackdown seems to have coincided with the latest deluge of Chinese cash washing through property markets around the Pacific. If you can’t launder your money through Macau, best to get it out of the country altogether.’

‘Australia - and particularly Sydney and Melbourne - are favoured destinations. But Auckland is high on the list. So too is Vancouver. And in California, Chinese purchasers are swamping the San Francisco market.’

‘Headlines around the Pacific are eerily similar. Take this one from The Diplomat from a few weeks back: “Chinese Buyers Fuel California Property Bubble.” In Vancouver, the average price for detached houses sits just under $2 million, after rising 173 per cent in the past decade.’

‘The Globe and Mail tells the story of a couple who, having paid $C488,000 for a house in 2000, put it up for sale in March. Within two hours, they had an offer for $2.29 million and accepted $2.48 million to a mainland China buyer.’

‘While we’ve been regaled with promises of vast trading opportunities and fabulous profits, it will be interesting to see whether anyone among the vast army of advisors to the deal has bothered to ask this simple question: if it is illegal to take more than $US50,000 out of China, why are so many Chinese nationals capable of splurging millions of dollars on individual properties?’

‘There is a simple answer to that: China doesn’t enforce its rules.’

‘The most common way to secrete cash out of China has been through “padding” of trading company invoices - a play on transfer pricing. The second most popular method was through Macau gambling dens.’

‘When combined with the rorts surrounding Australia’s Significant Investor Visa scheme - where a $5 million investment buys foreigners permanent residence - Australia was open for business when it came to real estate.’

‘Despite all the evidence, all the media reports and the outcry within the community, the Significant Investor Visa loophole - where foreigners simply borrowed the $5 million back from an investment bank to buy real estate, using their $5 million investment as collateral - has only just been closed.’

‘The Chinese incursion into Australian residential real estate - and the unwillingness of Australian regulatory bodies to enforce the law - is part of a broader malaise that has seen regulators from the FIRB and the Department of Immigration through to the banking regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, and the Australian Tax Office reluctant to act.’

‘A major reason for the official inaction is that this is a bubble that has been deliberately contrived.’

‘In 2012, when the Reserve Bank began its easing bias, it was determined to create a housing boom - so residential construction could fill the gap created by the decline in resource project construction. But as investors, rather than owner occupiers, plunged in almost from day one, APRA and the RBA should have taken action. Instead, they were happy to watch the bubble inflate and now, rather than admit a mistake, reluctantly are playing catch-up.’

‘A large portion of the investor action emanated from self-funded retirees, taking advantage of changes to superannuation rules that allowed them to gear up their super funds. While as a nation we boast about the extent of our national savings pool, little attention has been devoted to the fact that a significant amount of that pool is now exposed.’

‘As the Storm Financial collapse graphically illustrated, the capital losses on a property market bust will be magnified by debt. That could wipe out a significant number of super balances and put more pressure on the federal budget. After months of procrastination, APRA finally has begun to enforce its own rules on high risk lending. But it may be too late.’

‘The columnist and broadcaster Andrew Bolt asked two questions yesterday, about the National Australia Bank report that during the first quarter, 20 per cent of housing sold in NSW went to Chinese buyers.’

“What on earth are we doing?” demanded Bolt. “And why are politicians permitting this?”

‘Myriad folk are asking and answering these questions. But other questions are also important, but rarely tackled. They include what is driving such Chinese purchases, and what may be in the minds of the buyers?’

‘Chinese property buyers often mentally convert prices instantly into yuan, says Jetter, who has witnessed hushed discussions about yuan values during auctions on Melbourne streets. This has helped provide a perception of value for money as the dollar has slipped further behind the yuan.’

‘Losing face, he points out, is another big issue fostering Chinese purchases for high prices. Especially in front of an auction crowd of, say, 50 people including friends and relatives, “losing face can be a more important factor in driving people to pay a higher price, than value”.

‘And after buying a property, the owner may well be prepared to keep it empty rather than let it out — puzzlingly, for many Australian neighbours. That might be because the owner intends to use it herself or himself at some undecided time, and would prefer to keep it “new” rather than have it rented.’

‘Or it might be that the price the owner has determined is not being met by any potential renter. Rather than drop the price and lose face, the owner may leave it empty — especially if there’s no financing involved, or no pressure from the financing source.’

‘I take some small pleasure from recalling how I too was faced by this seeming nonchalance about renting a new Beijing apartment on the part of the owners, a married couple of Chinese hi-tech high-flyers — since my budget wouldn’t quite stretch to meet their expectation.’

‘In a stroke of luck more than inspiration, our negotiations ran on into New Year’s Eve — a crucial time in Chinese tradition to resolve such financial issues. I cheekily suggested that settling the contract would guarantee them good luck throughout the coming Year of the Dog. They looked at each other, smiled, and settled.’

‘Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc plans to invest more than $1 billion in China this year as the controversial ride-hailing app looks to rev up growth in the world’s second largest economy, an executive at the firm said on Friday.’

‘In an emailed letter to investors, first published by the Financial Times newspaper, Uber head Travis Kalanick said China was the “number one priority” for the company worldwide and that the firm was completing almost 1 million trips in China per day.’

‘The letter suggests Uber is taking a bullish approach to China, despite the firm facing raids on its offices and a crackdown on its drivers deemed to be operating illegally.’

“Since our launch in February 2014, we have found a public that is embracing Uber far beyond our most bullish expectations,” Kalanick said.’

‘Uber is up against China’s dominant taxi-hailing firm Didi Kuaidi - backed by Internet giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. San Francisco-based Uber, which has a tie-up in China with domestic Internet giant Baidu Inc, will launch a fundraising process to help expand its China unit on June 22, the letter said.’

‘People with knowledge of the matter said Uber has also been actively trying to forge closer ties with local governments in China in a bid to fend off protests by local taxi firms, raids on its offices and well-connected local rivals.’

“Chinese cities fell by 14 percent…”

$28 Trillion of hot borrowed money with nowhere to go.

Maybe we should just agree once and for all that one man’s China bull is another man’s massive bubble?

‘The Mile High City’s skyline is getting a glassy new addition, the latest sign that the U.S. office sector is strengthening beyond just large coastal markets.’

‘Hines, a Houston-based developer, on Tuesday broke ground on 1144 Fifteenth, a planned 40-story office tower one block southeast of Denver’s historic Larimer Square. The 640,000-square-foot structure will feature 10-foot ceilings and glass walls, open floor layouts, several ledge terraces, a 5,000-square-foot fitness center, and a mezzanine level with a fireplace and seating for informal gatherings.’

‘The addition comes as Denver’s vacancy rate was 12.9% in the first quarter, down 0.56 percentage point from its year-ago level and near its lowest point since 2008, according to CBRE, a commercial real-estate company.’

‘Hines is so confident of the project’s success that it is building on a speculative basis, meaning it has yet to sign a single tenant to the property it will spend more than $300 million to build.’

Improvement in the office market is accelerating across the nation, according to Victor Calanog, chief economist at Reis, a New York research firm. The national vacancy rate of 16.6% in the first quarter is on track to drop by almost half a percentage point this year, double the decline in 2014, he said.’

‘Hines has been in Denver since 1983, when it built the Wells Fargo Center, known locally as the Cash Register Building due to the shape of its roof. Mr. Despard said the company’s new tower will make a similarly distinctive addition to the landscape. “This building will enhance the entire look from afar of the city, and that was important to us,” he said.’

http://www.wsj.com/articles/property-boom-has-denver-building-new-rocky-mountain-high-1433842201

Where’s the HBB’s China denialist in chief today? He seems to be missing in action.

Phoenix up 5 percent YOY? That is manipulated. By now the YOY decline should have shown up. Many many zips have YOY declines.

You cannot makes profit buying a house to rent or flip at current prices. This means the 40 percent of the market that is based on speculation has dried up.

if they keep going up at the current rate, they will surpass that peak sometime in 2016.”

Sweet! Make up for my overly conservative stock market investments.

San Luis Obispo, CA Housing Prices Fall 4%

http://www.zillow.com/san-luis-obispo-ca/home-values/