The Housing Bubble Blog

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "You've likely heard plenty about the problems adjustable rates jumping, foreclosures increasing. Those problems are very real for more and more people and Realtors at the annual New York State Association of Realtors convention in Saratoga Springs...

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. "Bay Area home sales in August plunged to their lowest level since 1992, amid a credit crunch that is quashing home shoppers' ability to buy. In some outlying and entry-level markets, in particular, home prices are also taking a hit as...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and beyond. Forbes, "The moment that the British banking sector has been dreading came on Friday. Northern Rock, the country's fifth-largest mortgage lender, confirmed late on Thursday that it had requested and received a line of emergency funding from the...

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "Last year, a Brandon townhouse seemed like the perfect investment for Richard Wojciechowski. He bought a 1,700-square-foot Sabal Pointe home and listed it at $229,000. The retired banker thought it would be an easy sell. But 14 months later, in...

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

Bloomberg reports on California. "San Francisco Bay Area house and condominium sales fell 25 percent last month to the lowest for an August in 15 years as stricter loan standards pushed some buyers out of the market, DataQuick said. Standards are particularly strict for jumbo loans, mortgages...

KOAA.com reports from Colorado. "Economist Fred Crowley says housing data shows 4.5% of people in Pueblo with mortgages are in foreclosure. 'That's a rather serious number, one out of 20 people that you run into who owns a home with a mortgage on it they're having problems with the mortgage today,'...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. The Star Ledger, "Just a few years ago, Hovnanian Enterprises held lotteries to sell new homes because demand for housing was white-picket-fence hot. Now, with the residential real estate slump deepening by the month, the largest New...

The Star Advocate reports from Florida. "Brevard County homeowners with a mortgage had a median housing cost of $1,297 a month in 2006, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. That's up 15 percent from the $1,128 figure in 2005. Titusville resident Mary Franz said she is looking...

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The LA Times reports from California. "Southern California home sales tumbled to a 15-year low in August but the median home price continued to rise despite mounting industry woes, data released today show. Sales last month were the worst since 1992, according to DataQuick. In August, 17,755 homes...

The Journal Gazette reports from Indiana. "Builders received nearly 37 percent fewer Allen County home construction permits last month than August 2006, according to the Home Builders Association of Fort Wayne. Media stories about the mortgage crisis and increasing foreclosures are making potential...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. BBC, "Finance firm GMAC has had to take out a $21.4 bn loan as it becomes the latest lender to reveal the impact of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. GMAC, which has borrowed the cash from Citigroup, said boosting its financial flexibility...

Hometown Annapolis reports from Maryland. "The number of homes sold in Anne Arundel County fell about 21 percent for the second straight month, while prices were down in the midst of the national credit crisis and a slowing economy. The median sale price for a home in the county in August was...

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The Mercury News reports from California. "The East Bay is among the regions most vulnerable to a slump in California's housing market, a downturn that could be the worst in a quarter-century, an economist said Monday. And in a grim forecast, home sales activity could plunge more deeply by the end...

The Seattle PI reports from Washington. "Walking through a Georgetown house for sale in August, Jelena Senour said she was just looking. 'I'm not comfortable buying at this point, with some of the prices (sellers) are putting out there,' she said. 'I'm not going to take their fall.' Buyers'...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. CNN Money, "Home values and housing sales will take an even bigger hit than previously forecast and will not recover to their earlier levels throughout all of 2008, at least, according to the latest economic outlook from the National...

The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "A record 26,313 homes and condos were listed for sale last month just in the core Orlando market, up another 295 listings from the month before, according to records kept by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. And thousands more are on the market as...