The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Houston Chronicle. "Two weeks after Hurricane Harvey unleashed the worst flooding in Houston's history, tens of thousands of families are beginning an uneven recovery in hotels, rentals, family members' homes and flood-damaged apartments. Officials estimate as many as 136,000...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Local realtors, at least the ones that talk to the Denver Metro Association of Realtor’s Market Trends Committee Chairman Steve Danyliw, agree: The housing market is turning. 'Over the last two months, I’ve personally spoken to dozens of realtors...

A report from News.com.au in Australia. "The Australian mortgage market has 'ballooned' due to banks issuing new loans against unrealised capital gains of existing investment properties, creating a $1.7 trillion 'house of cards,' a new report warns. The report by LF Economics founder Lindsay David,...

A report from CNBC. "It will come as no surprise to anyone out house hunting today — buying a home is becoming ever more difficult to afford. Prices just keep soaring while incomes fail to keep pace. Even historically low mortgage rates are not helping enough. At the end of July, of the top 50...

A report from the Business Insider. "An inconvenient math for housing is beginning to dog Chicago: The third largest city in the US has been losing population for years. Since 2012, nearly 26,000 multifamily rental units have been completed in the city, according to Fannie Mae, which for 2017 sees...

A report from the New York Post. "Median home prices across the nation have been increasing with gusto, though perhaps not at levels as staggering as San Jose’s median price tag of $1,183,400. A good many of the nation’s metropolitan locales have experienced record appreciation. Coupled with...

A weekend topic on this report from Quartz. "The grim tale of America’s 'subprime mortgage crisis' delivers one of those stinging moral slaps that Americans seem to favor in their histories. Poor people were reckless and stupid, banks got greedy. Layer in some Wall Street dark arts, and there you...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "When rich home buyers don’t have the liquidity to purchase their homes outright, many turn to massive mortgages known as jumbo loans. Jumbo loans exceed the mortgage amount that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will purchase from lenders. Many experts...

A report from Forbes. "New high-rise residential construction has been among the hottest areas for real estate investors, particularly those from abroad, with high-end products accounting for 8o% of all new construction. Yet this is not an entirely high-end country, and these products, particularly...

A report from Crain's Chicago Business in Illinois. "The laws of economics dictate that growing demand drives prices up, but not if supply is rising by a greater amount. That's exactly what's happening in the downtown Chicago apartment market. Landlords are losing some of their leverage over...

A report from the Financial Times on Canada. "Officials at major Canadian banks are issuing assurances of the strength of their mortgage portfolios, in spite of strict government curbs on housing transactions, and dropping prices in big cities, as well as a slowdown in transactions. However, with...

A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. "For decades, the ability to deduct the interest on a home mortgage has been one of the most untouchable sacred cows of the tax code. It is particularly revered in Los Angeles and other areas with high real estate prices, where the annual tax...

A report from the Real Deal. "When Treasury officials rolled out a plan last year to unmask anonymous buyers of luxury real estate, a key criticism was that it excluded deals involving wire transfers — a gaping loophole large enough to drive a truck through, some said. By closing that loophole this...

A report from National Real Estate Investor. "The U.S. apartment completion volume across the country’s 100 largest metros has accelerated to more than 80,000 units per quarter in 2017, up from around 60,000 units a quarter in the previous couple years. That aggressive new supply tally is creating...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Denver's housing market has been red hot for the past few years. But as indicated by the presence of a 'Price Reduced' sign on a home in a sought-after part of Centennial, this situation may finally be about to change. Janene Russeau of Madison &...

A report from the Orange County Register in California. "No money down. Three words that unnerve many real estate observers who wince at ugly memories of risky loans and the mortgage-making disaster of the previous decade. Lending industry logic suggests the more money any borrower puts into a loan...

A report from the Globe and Mail in Canada. "In the midtown Toronto areas of Leaside and Davisville, the real estate market has been bouncing between optimism and despair like a yo-yo. Patrick Rocca, a real estate agent with Bosley Real Estate Ltd., has concentrated much of his business on the...

A report from the East Valley Tribune in Arizona. "Demand for rental apartment housing is on the rise in the East Valley and the rest of the metro region, buoyed by an increased desire for high-end apartments. Even older high-end apartment complexes are attracting investors because of the growing...

A weekend topic starting with MarketWatch by Caroline Baum. "It wasn’t long ago that the Federal Reserve resorted to the word 'conundrum' to explain the inexplicable. For example, as the Fed raised its benchmark rate from 1% in 2004 to 5.25% in 2006, long-term interest rates barely budged. Former...

A weekend topic starting with the Los Angeles Times in California. "On any summer weekend, Venice Beach is the ultimate urban beach carnival. But unlike other tourist spots Venice is still primarily a residential neighborhood. Because of that, Venice has become an epicenter of Los Angeles’ struggle...