The Housing Bubble Blog

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. HedgeFund.net, "Wall Street expected jack squat from Merrill Lynch. But that didn’t stop Merrill from reaching a new level of money-losing suckitude. For the first quarter Mother Merrill posted a loss of $2.14 billion...sprung from a $6...

The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "Accountant Jim Galvin thought of his home-equity line of credit as one of life's givens, a solid reserve ready for use when the need arose. So he was shocked last month when Countrywide Financial Corp. wrote him to say it had frozen his credit line. He...

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The Press Enterprise reports from California. "The spring buying season got off to a weak start last month, with home prices dropping faster in Riverside and San Bernardino counties than anywhere else in Southern California and sales continuing to plunge year over year. In Riverside County, the...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. MarketWatch, "Housing starts plunged in March to the lowest level in 17 years. Home starts by U.S. home builders plunged 11.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000 in March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Starts were...

The Sun Times reports from Illinois. "It is THE single biggest wish in the American dream of home ownership: the 'buyer’s market.' Bill Basic, long time homebuilder and president of the SouthWest Suburban Homebuilders Association, has seen this time come around maybe three times in the past 25...

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The LA Times reports from California. "Houses and condominium units in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties sold at a median price of $385,000 last month, the lowest since April 2004, according to DataQuick. The total number of homes sold, 12,808 in...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. AP, "A reading of U.S. homebuilders' sentiment remained unchanged in April, just shy of its record low for the third consecutive month as the housing market failed to recover. The National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday its...

The Fosters Daily Democrat reports from New Hampshire. "It doesn't take more than quick drive down area roads to realize home sales have stalled. In Strafford and Rockingham counties, 'For sale' signs are reappearing in front of homes that went unsold last year, or worse, in front of foreclosed...

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The LA Daily News reports from California. "The subprime home-loan rush is history. But its impact on the state's work force is just beginning to play out as tens of thousands of real estate, finance and construction workers are left looking for work after a number of heady years. A year ago, Ed...

The Independent Record reports from Montana. "Speaking at a seminar on foreclosures and their impact on Montana families, Sue Woodrow, community affairs manager for the Helena Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said there are some hotspots of foreclosure activity in Montana, but...

The Houston Chronicle reports from Texas. "After avoiding many of the problems suffered by other housing markets across the country, the Houston area finally began to feel some sting last year. 'We've gone from a period of people talking about Houston being an island to the recognition that we're...

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The Union Tribune reports from California. "Even before the doors opened, dozens of people had gathered yesterday outside Golden Hall at the downtown Community Concourse to attend a free clinic for financially distressed homeowners. 'You can tell how hungry for information people are from someone...

The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "Almost every street has one: a vacant house that sold a couple of years ago for a jaw-dropping price. Appraisers so commonly pumped up house values to meet demands of developers, real-estate agents and lenders that complaints against them tripled in Florida...

What do you see in your local housing market? Foreclosures? "Across the state, those who advise Vermonters facing foreclosures say they are starting to see a dramatic increase in the number of people seeking assistance — particularly among those who have subprime mortgages from out-of-state banks....

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MSN Money reports on California. "The mortgage industry calls it 'jingle mail' -- keys that arrive in envelopes from homeowners who've decided they'd rather walk away than fight to make impossible payments. The median first-time buyer put down less than 2% to buy a house in 2007, according to the...