The Housing Bubble Blog

A weekend topic starting with KGW in Oregon. "'I was on the edge of a cliff, hanging by my fingernails, fearing that my kids and I would have to leave Portland,' Roscoe Ryan remembers. The 41-year-old single mother had been renting a home in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood for three years when...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "On the cusp of the summer season and with housing sales overall on a steady upswing, homes at the lower end of the market on Martha’s Vineyard are being snapped up at a record clip. Real estate broker Doug Reece added that sellers now appear to be...

A report from Bloomberg on Canada. "Toronto’s hot housing market has entered a new phase: jittery. After a double whammy of government intervention and the near-collapse of Home Capital Group Inc., sellers are rushing to list their homes to avoid missing out on the recent price gains. The new...

A report from Bloomberg on Canada. "Home Capital’s troubles started with 'unlucky' brokers. That’s what Canadian banks and insurers call the mortgage merchants who get caught submitting fraudulent loan documents. Yet the brokers, whose names are now on databases maintained by lenders and mortgage...

A report from the Seattle Times in Washington. "As Seattle summers keep getting hotter and hotter, a once-unthinkable perk for renters here has become more commonplace: air conditioning. Traditionally, there hasn’t been much of a point for local developers to spend the extra money to install A/C...

A report from Fox News. "Top Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about the cuts President Trump plans to make for the 2018 budget year, which is due out Tuesday. The blueprint is certain to include a wave of cuts to benefit programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, federal employee pensions...

Expanding on the previous weekend topic with the Amarillo Globe News in Texas. "Housing demand keeps rising in Amarillo, and the supply isn’t keeping up. Local real estate agents say first-time buyers, retirees seeking medical care and country folk moving into town have crowded the housing market...

A report from the New York Times by Robert Shiller. "There is still no consensus on why the last housing boom and bust happened. That is troubling, because that violent housing cycle helped to produce the Great Recession and financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. But the explanations for what happened...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Low inventory has caused home prices to rise and forced prospective homebuyers into bidding wars, which in some cases has produced another side effect: appraisals that come in lower the contracted sales price, according to Allison Bartholomew,...

A report from CNBC. "The largest generation is finally starting to buy houses. The trouble is, there aren't enough houses for sale to feed their appetite, at least not enough they can afford. Enter the nation's recovering homebuilders. They may want to play to this great big audience, but doing...

A report from the Union Tribune in California. "In the first quarter of this year, local residential building permits were at their lowest since the Great Recession — largely because of a drop-off in apartment construction, said data from the Construction Industry Research Board. Builders and...

A report from Q 13 Fox in Washington. "When you think the housing market couldn’t get any hotter, it does and continues to set records. Chinese investors make up the majority of foreign buyers in our area. They have always been interested in the Puget Sound area but several local realtors are...

A report from the Toronto Sun in Canada. "Bidding wars have slowed and traffic at open houses appears to be down across the GTA and Hamilton after the province introduced new measures to cool the red-hot real estate market. Tim Hudak, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association said he’s heard...

A report from the Los Angeles Daily News in California. "If you’re in the market for an apartment, there may be some relief ahead after months of through-the-roof rents. 'L.A. is going against the current for a change, with rent prices relatively stable and signs of an even better year ahead for...

A report from the Mercury News in California. "At a Silicon Valley of Realtors meeting this month, Carole Rodoni, president of Bamboo Consulting, said realtors need to educate buyers that this market is not a negotiation market; rather, it is a competitive market. 'Buyers have to be quick, fast and...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Luxury listings — those priced $600,000 and up — over the past two years are taking longer to sell. Miami’s glut of inventory and sluggish rebound are due to several factors. With the abundantly high inventory, Miami’s high-end condo buyers have the...

A report from The Register Guard in Oregon. "Out-of-state developers have bought the shuttered Louie’s Village Chinese restaurant property in Eugene and hope to demolish it soon, taking a big step forward in their plan for a towering 12-story student apartment complex on the site. The project by...

A report from the Arizona Republic. "The Valley’s luxury housing market has picked up after too many high-priced listings hit the market and overshot demand from deep-pocketed buyers. Seven-figure home sales in the Phoenix area were up more than 30 percent in March from the previous year. Almost...

A report from the Kansas City Star. "Where dogs have long been part of the downtown scene in New York and many other big cities, they are relative newcomers, in large numbers anyway, to Kansas City’s urban center. Several downtown luxury apartments are now advertised as 'pet friendly' and offer...

A report from Loop North News. "Housing advocates nationwide are turning their noses up at President Donald Trump’s proposed tax plan which would double the standard deduction and, in effect, invalidate the tax benefits of owning a home. 'Real estate now accounts for more than 19 percent of...