The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from KATU in Oregon. "According to the February edition of Portland State University's Center for Real Estate Quarterly, the effective rent growth rate for an apartment in Northwest Portland is slowing down. Carlo Castoro, a realtor in Portland, says the reason behind the negative growth...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Prices are out of range for at least 205,000 households in Denver. Memories of the housing market crash of 2008 are still on the minds of real estate agents, officials and homeowners. Most avoid using the word 'bubble,' but rising home values and...

A report from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix in Canada. "Last November, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that Saskatoon’s vacancy rate had reached a historic high of 10.3 per cent — up from the 6.5 per cent recorded 12 months earlier. And at least one rental market expert believes the...

A report from National Real Estate Investor. "Developers still hope that Millennials will help fill the slowly growing number of vacant apartments across the United States. They might be right. More than a million Millennials still live at home—less than a few years ago, but still a substantial...

I'm off to visit friends and relatives in Texas and scout some real estate. I'm not sure what kind of internet connections I'll have or how much time to post, but please check back!

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Combine a strong local economy that’s attracting new residents from other states with a shortage of homes for sale -- and that means housing prices are going up across North Texas. Steve Brown reports on real estate for The Dallas Morning News. He...

A report from the San Francisco Chronicle in California. "The median price paid for new and existing Bay Area homes and condos that sold in January was $630,000, down 5.3 percent from December and up 1.6 percent from January of last year, according to CoreLogic data. In San Francisco alone, the...

A topic starting with the first of two emails I've received recently. "Me and my wife have been thinking about investing in a home of our own. Unfortunately we live in the most expensive neighborhood in USA, Bay Area California. The prices for housing is too high. Investing in a home here will need...

A report from the Orange County Register in California. "You are on notice that there are inflection points in the housing market that may cause a downturn. The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced for the fourth quarter of 2016 California’s mortgage delinquency rate weighed in at 3.2...

A report from Hoosier Ag Today. "Indiana farmland value decreased by an average of 7.1 percent in 2016 according to the newest report from Farm Credit Mid-America. The report also shows a slight drop in Kentucky but increases in average value for Ohio and Tennessee. Dennis Badger, Vice President...

A report from Multi-Housing News. "Jeffery Hayward, head of Fannie Mae’s multifamily mortgage business, shared a few highlights from 2016, as well as initiatives that Fannie Mae is embarking on in 2017. MHN: Where are you seeing a concentration of new supply? Hayward: Dallas will have a lot of new...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The mansion on Fallen Leaf Road in the secluded Upper Rancho neighborhood of Arcadia has all the trappings a wealthy buyer from China could want. Yet two months after it was placed on the market, the house remains unsold. Not long ago, real estate...

A report from News.com.au in Australia. "We are going to read a lot about apartment oversupply this year. The Reserve Bank of Australia has already kicked off the discussion warning of the consequences of any flood of new apartments hitting the market. The central bank pointed out that residential...

A report from the Real Deal. "Banks are shying away from financing new apartment projects as supply starts to outpace demand. This year more than 378,000 new apartments are expected to be completed nationwide, according to real estate researcher Axiometrics Inc. But only 50,000 of the 88,000...

A report from the Real Deal on New York. "When real estate agent Geovanna Lim’s client went into contract on a $3 million new development condominium in Midtown Manhattan more than two years ago, the pad was an easy get for the Chinese national. He agreed to put $300,000 down and even decided...

A report from the Dallas Morning News in Texas. "Vacancy rates for almost every North Texas real estate sector are staying near recent lows. Less than 4 percent of Dallas-Fort Worth apartments are empty, even with several years of extensive building. The shopping center market is less than 8...

A report from Globes on Israel. "Bank of Israel figures show that the average interest rate on index-linked mortgages rose from 3.84% in January to 3.85% in February, completing a rise of almost 2% in 18 months. Causes of the increase included expectations of a rise in the Consumer Price Index; a...

A weekend topic starting with the Dallas Morning News. "For Valentine's Day, Danielle DiMartino Booth sent Janet Yellen and the ruling cohort at the nation's central bank a caustic forget-me-not. DiMartino Booth, who advised Richard Fisher about the financial markets during her nine years at the...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Federal Housing Administration mortgage delinquencies jumped in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2006, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The FHA insures low down-payment loans and is a favorite among first-time...

A report from the Business News Network in Canada. "After months, if not years of hand-wringing about Canada’s hot housing markets, BMO is calling it: Toronto’s housing market is in a bubble. 'Let’s drop the pretence. The Toronto housing market — and the many cities surrounding it — are in a...