The Housing Bubble Blog

In Business Las Vegas reports from Nevada. "Las Vegas analyst Dennis Smith said the housing market slump is deeper and longer than most expected. It's going to be painful for a while longer before it gets better, Smiths said. In the resale market, the news is sobering, with 9,847 transactions...

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "In what could be a sign of things to come in the sluggish housing market, a prominent Tampa condominium project faces 34 lawsuits from buyers trying to back out of their deals. But unlike some pie-in-the-sky deals like Trump Tower Tampa, the Place at...

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It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Members of the Assembly challenged the mortgage industry Tuesday on the subprime lending problem. 'These problems are systemic and fundamental,' said Assemblyman Rory Lancman (of) Queens, pointing out that half of all subprime loans made around the...

The Times Herald reports from California. "The number of home foreclosures in Solano County is rising along with those of other Bay Area counties, even as local median home prices continue to fall, industry experts report. In Solano County, the median price of a home sold was $428,000 last month, a...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "An index of pending sales of existing homes in the U.S. unexpectedly fell to the lowest level in more than four years in April, a further sign the real-estate slump may linger. The index of signed purchase agreements, or pending home...

The Hook reports from Virginia. "'Under Assessment!' 'Bargain in the city!' 'Best deal out there!' Welcome to the new reality of moving real estate in Charlottesville. In one recent instance, desperate sellers, trying to unload a Belmont property they purchased two years ago, are asking only...

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The Sacramento Bee reports from California. "First it was individual homeowners who turned to the auction block to sell fast at a discounted price. Then home builders. Now come the banks. Home loan lenders, stuck with rising numbers of repossessed homes, will auction 242 houses next month to...

The Press Register reports from Alabama. "Darlene Hill was making a living in Mobile as a real estate investor when she devised a sophisticated con job against lenders that would net her far more money than just robbing a teller with a gun. By the time her enterprise collapsed last year, according...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Concerns about inflation trumped worries about the slumping housing market last month in the minds of Federal Reserve officials who voted to hold interest rates steady. While Fed officials said the downturn in housing was turning out to be...

The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "Many of Southwest Florida's home builders continue to struggle with a sluggish market. Pulte Homes announced Wednesday that it was cutting nearly 2,000 jobs nationally in a massive restructuring aimed at saving $200 million annually. The company said that...

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The Sacramento Bee reports from California. "Michael Alexander's departure from the buyer pool puts him among an estimated 30 percent of potential buyers who have vanished from area model homes and open houses as the real estate season reaches its busiest months. 'It was starting to look feasible,'...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Builder confidence in the condominium housing market eroded significantly in the first quarter of 2007, according to the latest results of the Multifamily Condo Market Index, released today by National Association of Home Builders. The...

A report from the Washington Post. "For years, as the bull market in housing gathered steam, people used their homes as glorified ATMs, pulling out money for all sorts of reasons. The trend helped support continued economic growth and recovery from the 2001 recession. But now people are reining in...

The Miami Herald reports from Florida. "A glutted real estate market is spilling into the lodging sector, as recent condo buyers who had counted on flipping for a profit instead face mortgage payments and maintenance fees. 'They can't sell them and they need an income coming,' said Linda Luft, a...

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The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. "Vallejo is the Bay Area's version of ground zero for the subprime loan crisis. A significant number of residents of the largely blue-collar city of 120,000 have taken out subprime loans. Vallejo home prices fell 8.5 percent from November to...