The Housing Bubble Blog

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The Northern San Joaquin Valley's new home market is dreadful and may not stabilize until 2012, home appraisers were warned this week during a conference in Modesto. 'The new home sales rate is nothing short of dismal,' lamented Dean Wehrle, VP of...

The Capital Times reports from Wisconsin. "It was billed as a $100 million 'urban village,' a project to energize the entire east side. Union Corners promised to transform the site of a contaminated battery factory three miles from the Capitol into a mix of condominiums, offices and retail shops....

And send in your housing bubble pics to: hbbphotos@gmail.com

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.

The Union Tribune reports from California. "Dragged down by declines in hiring and home-building, San Diego County's economic outlook continued to plummet in March...marking the 23rd time in 24 months that the index has fallen, according to an index of leading economic indicators released yesterday...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. AP, "Homebuilder Centex Corp. reported a loss of $911 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, as sales tumbled 37 percent and the company wrote down the value of unsold homes. To revive sales, Centex cut its average selling price 15 percent....

The Citizen Times reports from North Carolina. "The bursting of the real estate bubble took a big toll on the region’s homebuilding industry in the first quarter of 2008 as the number of building permits issued for homes and condominiums in Buncombe County fell by almost half. 'In most markets, the...

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.

The Record Searchlight reports from California. "The severity of the housing downturn hit home Tuesday with the release of North Valley Bancorp's first-quarter earnings. The Redding bank's nonperforming loans went from $459,000 in the first quarter a year ago to $25.7 million in 2008. The bank...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Realty Check, "I went up to Capitol Hill this morning because about 1,200 members of the National Association of Home Builders are taking their annual day of action up here. It couldn't be more timely, as several bills are working their way...

The Union Leader reports from New Hampshire. "As the number of foreclosures in New Hampshire continues to climb, housing advocates are seeing a disturbing trend: The mortgage crisis is spreading to prime borrowers. Just more than 6 percent of mortgages in New Hampshire are delinquent, according to...

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. "Like a brick cast from the top of the Transamerica Pyramid, national and local home prices are rapidly accelerating on their way down. The average cost of a Bay Area home dropped 17.2 percent year-over-year in February, compared to 13.2 percent...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. MarketWatch, "The decline in U.S. home prices quickened in February, with prices down a record 12.7% in the past year for 20 key cities, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. In February,...

The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "John Rankin remembers the day the owner at 2214 Sonoma Drive skipped town. 'He packed up his truck one day, and drove away,' said Rankin, president of the Mission Estates homeowners association in Venice. 'Then he just never came back.' That was nearly a...

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.

The Desert Sun reports from California. "There could be one silver lining to the Coachella Valley's transitional home real estate market: though some prices have fallen, property taxes in some cases may do so, as well. Riverside County Assessor Larry Ward's office receives 100 to 150 inquiries a...

Some housing bubble news from Washington and the empty houses across the US. Bloomberg, "A record 18.6 million U.S. homes stood empty in the first quarter as lenders took possession of a growing number of properties in foreclosure. The figure is 5.7 percent higher than a year ago, when 17.6 million...

The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. "Prices for Massachusetts single-family homes plunged nearly 11 percent last month, the biggest slide since the depths of the real estate downturn in the early 1990s. 'The Bay State's housing market is looking a lot like it did at the end of 1990,' said...

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craiglist finds here.