The Housing Bubble Blog

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

The First Round Of This Recession

Although the stock market crashed in 1929, Great Depression 1.0 didn’t get fully underway until the early 1930’s, when the cumulative damage from massive unemployment, farm foreclosures, dead businesses, and overall national malaise joined up with an increasingly hostile Mother Nature to make...
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The HBB Rates The Mainstream Media

Recently, a HBB discussion turned to which Florida newspapers had done a good job of covering the housing bubble while it was building or at the peak. I thought it would be a timely project for this blogs readers to review the subject. On this thread, I am asking for nominations for the following...
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The Crapshoot And Jackpot Of Homeownership

The Glendale News Press reports from California. "Local home foreclosure rates have continued to rise, led by a baffling eight-fold jump in La Crescenta filings during the month of September, compared with a year ago, according to experts and a report prepared for the Glendale News-Press by...
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An Orwellian "Free Market" Economy

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis released last week, 23 publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms are on track to pay out record employee retention bonuses for 2009. Only the timely intervention of Balloon Boy saved America’s overtaxed punditry from having to rationalize...
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A Matter Of What's Fair And Reasonable In Florida

The Miami Herald reports from Florida. "If you think the torrent of foreclosures affecting every city and nearly every neighborhood and street in South Florida is as bad as it can get, here is a harsh new reality: There's a new wave of foreclosures making its way through the courts that has nothing...
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This Was A Sure Winner

The Cheiftain reports from Colorado. "A former real estate appraiser has agreed to help federal authorities in an ongoing investigation of large-scale residential real estate fraud in Pueblo. James L. Esters, of Osage Beach, Mo., who previously lived in Parker, near Denver, is obligated to...
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People Were Going Crazy

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "There is no shadow inventory; there is no bank conspiracy; there are no houses waiting like vine-ripened tomatoes for the moment to be plucked, says a recent report from ForeclosureRadar. Thousands of adjustable loans will reset in 2010 and 2011,...
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