The Housing Bubble Blog

The Record reports from New Jersey. "A Hoboken developer, Remi Cos., plans to jump-start sales of its new condo development with a public auction next Sunday. The auction is occurring against a backdrop of lower demand and lower prices for condos nationwide. 'We can sell the units quickly, and...

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A report from the Bakersfield Californian. "Wednesday marked the first time in five years that Hudson & Marshall held an auction in Bakersfield. National lenders hire the company to market and move large volumes of bank-owned properties that have been foreclosed upon. When foreclosures were few,...

The Courier Journal reports from Indiana. "Southern Indiana home builders have scaled back their annual expo due to slower sales. Last year, the Expo was in Floyds Knobs and featured eight homes priced from $750,000 to $1 million. Some are still unsold. 'Houses in those price ranges have more days...

The Pensacola News Journal reports from Florida. "Greg Chapman put his East Hill home on the market in November 2005 at a time when residential prices were approaching post-Hurricane Ivan highs. But it also was a time when the inventory of unsold homes was starting to climb rapidly. Over the next...

What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Lower prices? "With so many houses on the market right now and prices falling, buyers have more houses to choose from and more bargaining power than in recent years, agents say. 'Buyers know they are more in the driver's seat,' agent Yolanda...

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The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports from California. "For home buyers, there's good news, and bad news. The good news is the median price for a single-family home in Santa Cruz County dropped 2 percent to $760,000 in May after increasing three months in a row. The bad news is that's not affordable for...

Readers discussed the rising interest rates as a topic. "A possible topic; the effect of suddenly higher interst rate." "I did the calculations and basically one point (6% to 7%) on a 30 year fixed with 20% down adds $25k to the effective cost of a $250k home. More expensive homes see a greater...

A message from a reporter: "A national news reporter is looking to interview people who are trying to sell their second homes or have tried to do so in the past year. It’d be great to hear from anyone with a vacation home or investment property for a piece on the highs and lows of second-home...

The Houston Chronicle reports from Texas. "Barbara Thompson put her four-bedroom home near Pearland on the market last November. But even though she upgraded the house about a year ago with hardwood floors, crown molding and a larger patio, it still hasn't sold. She just dropped her asking price by...

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It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Big Sky, Montana, is seeing a slow down in home sales, but there is no indication the resort community is perched on a housing bubble ready to pop, according to local real estate agents. Currently, 132 residential properties in Big Sky are listed...

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. "Bay Area home sales continued their downward slide in May, with fewer properties changing hands and the mix of sales tilting toward higher-priced houses. In the nine-county area, 5,487 existing single-family homes were sold in May, down 17.4...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Inman News, "Reports from the nation's 12 Federal Reserve banks show continuing weakness in residential real estate and construction, with most districts characterizing housing markets as soft or weak, and no districts reporting an increase...

The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "Turmoil in the housing market is swirling around an increase in troubled loans and a new threat, rising interest rates. Around the nation, late home-mortgage payments and adjustable-rate loans going into foreclosure hit all-time highs in the first three...

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

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The Sacramento Bee reports from California. "Capital-area home sales...remained well below last year. Across much of the region median prices continue their 12-month trend of year-over-year declines. TrendGraphix reported 14,704 existing homes for sale at May's end. That's 678 more houses for sale...

The East Valley Tribune reports from Arizona. "Sales of existing Valley homes picked up slightly in May, as tens of thousands of homeowners competed for buyers in a dragging market. Some 5,220 existing homes sold last month, down 24 percent from the same period last year, a study by Arizona State...