The Housing Bubble Blog

Reuters reports on California. "Sheila Hill is no closer to making a down payment on a house than she was a year ago, when she began shopping in the San Diego area, even though prices on some of the single-family homes she has seen have fallen $200,000. 'It's kind of an awkward time right now to be...

The Melfort Journal reports from Canada. "The housing market is continuing to boom in the Melfort area. 'We’re still very busy. There are lots of people looking for housing and as new listings come up, they’re selling very quickly,' said real estate agent Colleen Ratcliffe. 'I would think pricing...

The Shreveport Times reports on Virginia. "What some analysts are calling the worst housing sales slump in decades prompted U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery to hold onto his Washington, D.C.-area home until at least the spring. McCrery said Wednesday that he put the family's house in McLean, Va., on the...

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "Liz Seither deftly juggles the two phones that never stop ringing in her kitchen. The Clearwater Realtor's eyes are puffy below unkempt flaming orange hair. Seither invested in expensive Clearwater waterfront property at the peak of the recent boom....

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The County Sun reports from California. "Real-estate professionals know the drill: If the house won't sell, slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls and plant fresh grass in the front yard. But with the housing market hitting the skids over the past few months, that's just not good enough. 'It...

The Chicago Tribune reports from Illinois. "Surrounded nationally by a residential real estate market in decline, some Chicago buyers and sellers seem so determined to get the price they want that they would rather not consummate a deal than give in. Dave Zebutis, who has been house-hunting for...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. The Street.com, "Housing prices across the U.S. fell 3.2% in the second quarter from a year earlier -- the largest decline in at least 20 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. The even worse news is that this data...

The Florida realtors report on July sales. "With positive economic conditions such as low mortgage interest rates and job growth continuing in Florida, statewide sales of existing single-family homes totaled 11,674 in July and were closer to activity in July 2001 and 2002 – before the housing boom...

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The California realtors report on July sales. "Home sales decreased 22.7 percent in July in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home increased 3.2 percent, CAR reported today. 'The decline in sales we experienced in July continues to be driven...

The Flathead Beacon reports from Montana. "The pace of second-quarter existing home sales fell by 7.1 percent in Montana, compared to the same time in 2006, according to numbers released last week by the National Association of Realtors. 'For sale' signs are propping up all around Flathead Valley,...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. MarketWatch, "Inventories of unsold single-family homes increased 2.2% to 3.85 million in July, sending the inventory in relation to sales to the highest level in 16 years, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. Sales were...

The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. "The champagne-popping days are over for Natalie and David Luongo, who banked enough money flipping a South Florida condo three years ago to stage a $100,000 wedding. Should they walk away from the $117,000 deposit they plunked down on another investment...

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The Marin Independent Journal reports from California. "In Marin, the national mortgage meltdown has done lots more than just make buyers anxious, it has cost hundreds of mortgage industry and other housing-related jobs, kept houses on the market longer and boosted the county's foreclosure rate....

The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. "Last year, the lending division Peter Garvin headed from his Denver Tech Center office made $1.5 billion in mortgage loans to new-home buyers across the country. On Aug. 6, he was laid off when his company, American Home Mortgage, filed for...

The Baltimore Sun reports from Maryland. "An increasing swath of the Baltimore region is caught up in a housing slump that is getting worse and appears to have further to fall. Average home-sale prices in the first six months of the year fell in a little more than half of Baltimore's suburban...

What do you see in your local housing market this weekend? Lending problems? "'I have never seen it as bad as this in 16 years. It can’t have bottomed out, there are still all those bad loans out there,' said Margaret Massitti, a real estate broker in Cleveland, Ohio. 'People just walked away from...

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