The Housing Bubble Blog

The Tampa Tribune reports from Florida. "If you're trying to sell your home, recent real estate news is likely getting you down. There are more homes for sale than buyers, empty houses sit on the market for months, and some homes aren't selling. Tampa ranks second in the nation for falling prices,...

What do you see in your local housing market this weekend? Price reductions? "The number of homes for sale on the Jackson market reached a two- year high on Nov. 30, when houses reached an 8.5 month supply at the current rate of sales. That data comes from the Central West Tennessee Association of...

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A weekend topic on the past year. "We have just experienced a historic year. What was the biggest housing bubble event of 2007?" One posted, "Containment didn’t happen." Another added, "The housing bubble was renamed the 'Subprime this' or the 'Subprime that.' Mentally containing it, just a little,...

The Sacramento Bee reports from California. "ResMAE Mortgage Corp.'s job posting, widely advertised just a year and a half ago, promised account executives with experience selling subprime home loans and a high school degree '7-FIGURE POTENTIAL.' Those were the heady days of the real estate boom,...

The Chicago Tribune reports from Illinois. "The number of homes sold in Illinois dropped dramatically in November while prices slid outside of the nine-county Chicago market, according to the monthly report by the Illinois Association of Realtors. Statewide, the median sale price was $193,000 for...

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It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Joan Olsen is an example of someone who took out a mortgage she couldn't afford. A retired welfare worker, she said she didn't fully understand the loan terms when she refinanced her San Diego condominium 15 months ago with an option ARM. Olsen, 73,...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Associated Press, "The Commerce Department reported Friday that new-home sales tumbled by 9 percent in November from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000. That was the worst showing since April 1995, when the pace of sales...

The Daily News reports from Florida. "The Daily News began tracking local foreclosures in August. Court records at that time showed that foreclosures in Okaloosa County had jumped by nearly 70 percent from 2005 to 2006 and are on pace to be about 83 percent higher in 2007 than in 2006. Santa Rosa...

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

The Sacramento Bee reports from California. "Happily shucking its farm-town image, Lincoln embraced suburbia during the Sacramento area's great housing boom. Its population tripled. Master-planned communities sprang up and prices hit blue-sky territory. Then things went sour in what had been...

The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. "The note left on the door to the house on Fulton Street was a plea to owners who no longer live there. 'Please repair the garage door,' read the note, dated Oct. 18. 'Please remove all outdoor storage, trash and debris from the alley.' It was written...

National Public Radio reports on Massachusetts. "In August, the global credit markets seized up, as investors around the world realized there were many securities floating around that no one was sure how to value. 'This summer was shocking,' said Paul Willen, an economist with the Federal Reserve...

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Money Magazine reports on California. "When Patty Marquez graduated from the University of Minnesota more than five years ago and moved to Southern California, she thought about buying a house. But with prices already sky-high in the Southland market, 'I was scared,' says Marquez. So she rented for...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. CNN Money, "Home prices fell 6.7 percent in October, compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 10-city home-price index, a record drop as housing markets continued to deteriorate. It marked the 10th consecutive month of...

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "The sales tactics were like nothing Tampa had ever seen. 'A lot of food, a lot of dessert, a lot of liquor,' said Fred Caldwell, who attended a party at Saddlebrook Resort. 'They had a band. They had dancing.' Four years later, the scenario sounds...

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