The Housing Bubble Blog

What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Builder incentives? "D.R. Horton's Las Vegas Division will hold a '100 Under 200 Sale' June 28 and 29. During the weekend event, the builder will offer 100 new homes priced below $200,000 with special incentives. Qualified buyers also may be...

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The San Diego Business Journal reports from California. "LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., the Richmond, Va.-based title company issued an internal memo to its San Diego employees June 12, saying it intends to reduce operations here, according to Peter Habenicht, VP of communications for...

Readers suggested a topic on where the housing bust is headed. "Now that we may finally be heading into an economy-wide recession, will it become difficult for borrowers with good credit and a down payment to buy even if housing prices drop to affordable levels? In NYC and places like it, where...

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It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Columbia home sales have dropped significantly from May of last year. Amy Hamby and her husband put their home up for sale last month. They have had plenty of interest, but say potential buyers don't seem ready to plunge into an uncertain housing...

The Miami Herald reports from Florida. "The median price of an existing single-family house fell in Miami-Dade and Broward counties by roughly 20 percent in May. The number of houses sold were down 31 percent in Miami-Dade and 8 percent in Broward for the year. Compared to houses listed for sale,...

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CNN Money reports on California. "On Wednesday there was some good news for California, when a local realtor group said that sales there jumped 18% in May compared to May 2007. But the hard times are far from over: Prices took a beating, plummeting 35% during the same period, according to the...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Existing-home sales increased 2.0 percent from April, but are 15.9 percent below the 5.93 million-unit pace in May 2007. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $208,600 in May, down 6.3 percent from a year ago...

The Post Dispatch reports from Missouri. "All real estate is local, or so goes the saying. But the St. Louis region can't seem to avoid the troubles of a weak national house-building market and buyer indifference. House building locally has slowed to levels not seen in almost a decade. With so much...

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The Voice of San Diego reports from California. "The county's housing prices logged a 22.4 percent drop compared to the same month a year ago, according to the most recent Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index for April 2008 released Tuesday. Compared to the peak in November 2005, the county's...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. MarketWatch, "Sales of new U.S. single-family homes tumbled 2.5% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000 as sales in the West fell to a 26-year low, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday. New-home sales were down 40.3%...

The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. "Denver-area homes lost an average 4.7 percent of their value in the 12-month period that ended in April. Prospective home buyers are being cautious, said broker Diane P. Huttner. She said a large number of people are seeing negative reports in the...

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The Sierra Sun reports from California. "Since housing values went up for so long, lenders figured home buyers could keep up with mortgage payments since the equity in their homes would grow. When housing prices went down, mortgage rates went up and homeowners were having a hard time paying...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. MarketWatch, "Home prices across 20 major U.S. cities have dropped a record 15.3% in the past year and are now back to where they were in the summer of 2004, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard &...

The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. "The spring housing market is shaping up as one of Massachusetts' slowest ever. Home sales fell steeply in May, completing a three-month run of declines during the prime selling season for real estate. The number of single-family home sales that closed...