The Housing Bubble Blog

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The Recordnet reports from California. "Sales and sales prices of existing homes in San Joaquin County dropped in January, and statewide, the picture wasn't much better. Closed sales in January were down from 417 in December throughout the county to 266 in January, a decline of more than 36...

The Chicago Tribune reports from Illinois. "Though local observers say the slumbering Chicago housing market has started to stir, it snored right through January, when sales slid by nearly 11 percent from a year before, according to data released Tuesday by the Illinois Association of Realtors. It...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, said payments were late at the end of last year on almost 20 percent of the subprime loans it tracks for other companies and investors who own them. CEO Angelo Mozilo has said...

The News Press reports from Florida. "Compared to the market a year ago, both prices and numbers of sales in Lee County were down sharply: prices were off 7 percent from January 2006's $287,200 and sales were down 34 percent. Locally, some would-be sellers are feeling a mounting frustration as they...

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The Ventura County Star reports from California. "Home prices and sales continued to slide last month. The county's median price for existing single-family homes was $664,400 in January, down 2.6 percent from the same month last year, the California Association of Realtors reported. January sales...

The East Valley Tribune reports from Arizona. "New-home sales continued to drag in January. Some 3,746 new homes were sold in January, down 7.1 percent from the same period in 2006, the latest housing market report from real estate analyst RL Brown shows." "Permits were also down year over year,...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Sales of new homes plunged 16.6% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 937,000, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the lowest sales pace in four years, and was the biggest percentage decline in 13 years. Sales...

The Massachusetts realtors report the sales for January. "After more than a year of declines, sales volume of detached single-family homes for the month of January was up over 12 percent compared to the same time last year. This is the first time there has been a double digit increase since January...

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The California realtors report on January sales. "Home sales decreased 12.6 percent in January in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home increased 1.9 percent, CAR reported today. 'On a regional basis, sales fell an average of 13 percent,...

The Florida realtors have the January numbers out. "The pace for Florida’s existing home sales remained slow in January, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. Statewide, sales of single-family existing homes totaled 9,382 last month compared to 12,906 homes sold in January 2006 for a 27...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Total existing-home sales were 4.3 percent below the 6.75 million-unit level in January 2006. Total housing inventory levels rose 2.9 percent at the end of January to 3.55 million existing homes available for sale" "Median home prices fell...

The Journal Sentinel reports from Wisconsin. "Fields of dreams are scattered across metro Milwaukee, platted subdivisions awaiting the end of the home-building slump. Only one in four vacant land parcels for sale in the four-county region sold last year, a ratio that went to one in eight in...

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The Review Journal reports from Nevada. "John Riordan doesn't like to use the term 'bottom out,' so he's saying the high-rise luxury condo market in Las Vegas is turning around. Riordan said the buyer demographics at Turnberry Towers are similar to those at Turnberry Place, the four-tower, 780-unit...

The US News and World Report looks at Colorado. "In pursuing the American dream, Hector Garcia figured he was doing everything right. He bought his first house 4 1/2 years ago in Denver's Montbello neighborhood. Garcia took out a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 6.5 percent interest, bought a...

A report from the Courier Journal. "The number of Kentuckians buying homes reached an all-time high last year. But some of those buyers are having trouble keeping up with the payments. One in every 57 residential mortgages across Kentucky, nearly 2 percent, was in foreclosure last summer, according...

The Tampa Tribune reports from Florida. "Scores of gamblers gathered at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Saturday, but the name of the game was real estate, not roulette. Alan Westfall was betting he could break even on a six-bedroom home he invested in right before the local market went...