Banks Went On Offensive About Delaying Foreclosures

The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "Home prices in Broward County increased in August, but sales declined. When the six-year housing meltdown bottomed in late 2011, investors overwhelmed the market, paying cash for fixer-uppers that were resold or rented for robust returns. That led to...
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A Scare Of Price Correction

Global News reports on Canada. "It’s no secret that renting or buying a home in Vancouver is extremely unaffordable. The reality is that a lot of homes and condos in Vancouver are purchased, and then sit empty for years. Romy Lindner, owner of rental agency 'Happily Ever Homes,' says despite...
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This Great Start Kind Of Stopped

The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "Investors pulling back on homebuying is one of the biggest issues facing South Florida's housing market, an analyst said Friday. 'There's still a lot of investor activity, but it is declining,' said Brad O'Connor, a research economist for the Florida Realtors...
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Investors Engulfed By The Tidal Wave Of New Supply

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The vacancy rate for single-family homes was 10.7 percent in 2013, up from 10.6 percent in 2012 and near its 2011 peak of 11 percent. That's far above the vacancy rate during the bubble (8.6 percent in 2005) and before (7.4 percent in 2000). In...
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A New Breed Of Investor Moving Into A New Paradigm

The National Post reports on Florida. "Lured mostly by cheap prices, Canadians spent $2.2-billion on Florida real estate last year, easily making them the Sunshine State’s No. 1 international buyer of real estate. 'We went down there on a holiday and prices were so damn low, I said to my wife...
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We’ve Forgotten What Normal Is

The Daily Bulletin reports from California. "California home sales slipped in August after two months of increases as the median home price rose, the California Association of Realtors reported. August marked the 10th straight month that sales were below the 400,000 level and the 13th straight...
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Markets Will Not Be Liquid When Liquidity Is Needed Most

Reuters reports on Canada. "Jeff Lowry and his family left a sedate housing market in Tennessee last year and moved to Canada in the midst of a housing boom, where bidding wars and soaring prices were an unpleasant reminder of his American roots. Trading in his suburban home outside Nashville for a...
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The Misconception Is That People Can Afford It

The Press Enterprise reports from California. "Banks are still in the throes of taking back housing-crisis remnants in Inland Southern California, a new report from RealtyTrac shows. The 2,447 foreclosure filings across the two-county region in August were 11.6 percent less than the year earlier,...
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A Decade Of Boom, Bust And Boom Again

A report from MarketWatch. "Jim Reid and his strategy crew at Deutsche Bank spent over 100 pages this week examining the 'near two-decade rolling series of inter-related bubbles' that have characterized our financial lives. We’ve sure been on a hot streak, between the Russia and Asia in the 90s,...
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