The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Chicago Tribune in Illinois. "The massive apartment construction boom in downtown Chicago is starting to show signs of saturation, and rents will likely start to decline by fall, Appraisal Research Counselors reported Tuesday. Rents fell about 14.7 percent during the fourth...

A report from the Winthrop Transcript in Massachusetts. "The real estate market showed median home sale prices go up anywhere from 8-21 percent in the Revere, Winthrop, Chelsea, East Boston, Everett and Lynn. Jim Polino of Highland Real Estate in Winthrop agreed that East Boston is hot. The public...

A report from CBS 8 in California. "San Diego apartment rental prices continue to go up, up, up with the average price of a two bedroom apartment now around $2,200. But, there may be some good news on the horizon. The good news is vacancy rates are starting to creep up in San Diego County, mainly...

A weekend topic on this New York Times article by Conor Dougherty. "Suppose there were a way to pump up the economy, reduce inequality and put an end to destructive housing bubbles like the one that contributed to the Great Recession. The idea would be simple, but not easy, requiring a wholesale...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "The Farm Belt is hurtling toward a milestone: Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase. Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Khaki is turning the Moore County real estate market red-hot right now. Buyers who can tap into the home-loan program offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are fueling a construction and buying binge the likes of which have never been...

A report from the Chico Enterprise-Record in California. "Dozens of apartment buildings will be popping up across the city the next few years, many geared toward student living. This year, at least 758 apartments and about 275 single-family homes will begin construction. Developer Kevin Kramer said...

A report from Bloomberg on New York. "Manhattan landlords, who for years pushed apartment rents to ever-higher levels, now keep setting records of a different kind: the giveaways they offer to tenants. The portion of new leases signed with concessions reached a new high for the fourth straight...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Trulia findings point to a critical imbalance in the market: There is a significant and growing shortage of lower-priced homes and a glut of high-end ones. Sales of new and existing homes were slow in December, in part because of a shortage of inventory at...

A report from Bloomberg on Australia. "The Reserve Bank of Australia frequently seeks feedback on the health of the economy. It might want to call the debt counselors soon. Homeowners, consumers and property investors around Australia are making more calls to financial helplines as three warning...

A report from the Charlotte Observer on North Carolina. "Charlotte’s real estate market forecasts have been pretty universally positive for 2017, and CBRE added to the optimistic chorus last week, with predictions that growth and development will continue at their fast pace. Despite the record...

A report from the Orange County Register in California. "The resilience of Orange County’s housing market in 2016 surprised many folks. Builders didn’t construct many 'affordable' homes. Questions swirled about the durability of the local economic rebound and the quality of the jobs it was...

A report from Better Dwelling on Canada. "Global real estate markets are breaking a sweat, and Vancouver should be no exception. Those same foreign buyers that sent property values soaring around the world are now a little short on foreign currency. New regulations now prohibit the exchange of yuan...

A weekend topic starting with Bloomberg. "A decade after the U.S. housing market collapsed, Federal Reserve officials are watching rising apartment towers as the next potential asset-price bubble, which could add to the debate about the pace of interest-rate hikes this year. Fed Chair Janet Yellen...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The number of foreclosures in Denver has been steadily decreasing since the height of the housing crisis and recession, but that trend reversed slightly in 2016. The city processed 720 new foreclosure cases last year, according to data from the...

A report from Philadelphia Magazine. "The three major apartment search engines all released their monthly rent surveys for February this week, and with one notable exception, they report that rents continued to rise from January to February. On Abodo.com, rents in Philadelphia posted the...

A report from Sourceable in Australia. "The peak of the boom in residential construction in Queensland appears to be coming to an end. In its latest report, the Master Builders Association of Queensland says it expects dwelling commencements to fall from what it expects will be a record 48,000 in...

A report from the Oregonian. "The Portland area's rapidly rising home prices may have run out of steam in the second half of 2016. The sudden slowdown might be a sign the Portland metro area, walloped by escalating prices in recent years, has hit the outer limits of affordability. Aaron Terrazas, a...

A report from the Herald Tribune in Florida. "International buyers still love Florida real estate, but their passion is fading. Foreign buyers spent $4.3 billion less on residential real estate in the Sunshine State last year, an 18 percent plunge. With shrinking buying power, foreigners are...

A report from the Longview News-Journal in Texas. "A sharp increase in foreclosures is blamed for causing the housing market in the Longview area to plummet to second from the bottom among 200 markets nationwide, according to a new home-value forecast. The spike in the foreclosure rate, to 34...