The Housing Bubble Blog

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It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Orlando's existing-home market ended 2007 with a nine-year low in annual sales and a record decline in December's median price compared with a year earlier. Local Realtors, hammered by months of slumping sales, cheered the dramatic decline in median...

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. "During the recent boom, new housing got an even bigger price bump than existing ones because people often wanted the best, and, with a Icarian faith in the market's eternal flight, buyers were willing to pay more and more to get the best. Now,...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. MarketWatch, "Bank of America Corp. said Friday it's purchasing Countrywide Financial Corp. for $4 billion. The stock-swap deal will put an end to the independence of the troubled California lender headed by Angelo Mozilo, and represents an...

The Baltimore Sun reports from Maryland. "The local housing market ended its second full year of the downturn in a worsening slump, with year-over-year sales in December falling 30 percent for the fourth month in a row. For local sellers, the problem hasn't been merely falling demand. Supply rose,...

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The Mt Shasta Herald reports from California. "According to mortgage broker Jacob Barr, the Lake Shastina area has been hit to some degree with foreclosures, but the rest of Siskiyou County has largely escaped people losing their homes. Barr said the county is seeing 'three or four homes foreclosed...

Bloomberg reports on Canada. "Canadian building permits fell almost five times as fast as economists forecast in November, as the value of licenses for new offices and multifamily dwellings tumbled. 'Economists have been calling for a slowdown for years, but this may be the start of the real...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. LA Times, "Countrywide Financial Corp.'s future was called into question again Wednesday after it reported another rise in loan delinquencies and foreclosures, fueling fresh speculation that the company was headed toward bankruptcy. The...

The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "When the market goes south, the deals come out. Nathan Benderson is hoping to jump-start sales at his Port Charlotte retirement community by offering massive rebates that could top $100,000. 'What we're doing, nobody else can beat it,' Benderson said....

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The San Mateo County Times reports from California. "Home sales continued to plummet and prices fell in many San Mateo County cities in December as the worst housing slump in more than 20 years deepened, a new report revealed Tuesday. With buyers being extra cautious, home sales declined 34 percent...

The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. "The average price of a previously owned single-family home in the Denver area fell 2 percent last year, apparently the first time the area has seen a year- over-year decline. The median price also suffered the first year-over-year decline. 'Yes,...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Reuters, "Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Wednesday that foreclosures and late payments rose in December to the highest on record. In its monthly operating report, Countrywide said the foreclosure rate...

The Enquirer reports from Ohio. "Liberty Township, once billed as one of the region's fastest-growing suburban communities, has seen a sharp decrease in new-home construction. In Hamilton Township in Warren County and Fairfield Township in Butler County, housing starts have been sliced in half or...

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KGET 17 reports from California. "A new real estate report paints another bleak picture of property values for home sellers in Bakersfield. 'The median price of a home has dropped 20 percent since it's peak in 2006,' said appraiser Gary Crabtree. 'Forty-six percent of all single family houses sold...

The Missoulian reports from Montana. "Missoula's real estate climate, while sheltered from the extremes in other markets, cooled in 2007. 'We didn't see the huge price increases and so we're not seeing the dramatic drops,' said Mary Marry, president of the Missoula Organization of Realtors. 'We're...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Associated Press, "The National Association of Realtors seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell to a reading of 87.6...down 19.2 percent from a year ago. (The) trade group predicted Tuesday that the pace of U.S....