The Housing Bubble Blog

Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.

The Bet Has Failed

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Elaine Dobson, partner at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP believes that even with the economic doom and gloom in the UK property market, central London and in particular prime central London is a property bubble that can't be burst. 'The Central London...
Read more (25 comments)

An Illusion Of Newfound Prosperity

A report from the New Jersey Newsroom. "New Jerseyans’ are feeling distinctly worse off financially and their outlook on the housing market has soured, according to a quarterly consumer survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s College of Business. People who own their house are more likely than...
Read more (31 comments)

Sellers Writing A Check When/If It Sells

The Landmark reports from Illinois. "Despite hopes that the local real estate market would begin to recover three years after it began to crash, the bottom still hasn't been reached, according to the latest sales figures for Riverside, Brookfield and North Riverside. Through Aug. 31, the median...
Read more (60 comments)

There’s A Boom Out There Somewhere

The Denver Post reports from Colorado. "The baby-boomer generation is poised to blaze new frontiers in retirement as it has in other endeavors. Yet, in this case, many boomers are experiencing regret, frustration and resignation that the path their parents took is closed to them. John Taylor, 54,...
Read more (24 comments)

A Closet Full Of Wild Cards

Readers suggested a topic on lender owned houses. "What are the dynamics of the bank’s decision to keep a house off market? I’d like to explore the underlying factors that go into a bank’s choice of when to sell a house it owns. Particularly, I’d like to try to quantify these things using...
Read more (44 comments)

This Time Things Are Different

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Wilfredo Guzman bought his Indian Orchard home in 2001 with what he says was a predatory mortgage, taking up seventy-five percent of his monthly income. After losing his full-time job, Wilfredo struggled to provide for his nine children while on...
Read more (75 comments)

A Multi-Year Phenomenon

The News Journal reports from Delaware. "It wasn't so long ago that retirement meant a well-earned ticket to Easy Street. Today, that's nothing more than fantasy for tens of millions of Americans. More than half of all U.S. households hadn't saved a penny in their 401(k) retirement accounts and the...
Read more (114 comments)