The Housing Bubble Blog

The Star Telegram reports from Texas. "New-home starts and sales fell sharply in North Texas in the fourth quarter, as builders adjusted to the slowing market. Builders are cutting back building new homes and selling land they have stockpiled, analysts said." "'We have the most new-home builder...

TC Palm reports from Florida. "Don't expect the Treasure Coast real estate market to make any positive strides until 2009. That's according to a new report by (exonomist) Hank Fishkind. 'It's going to take some time to absorb the inventory levels in the residential market,' Fishkind said....

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The Tracy Press reports from California. "City statistics show that new home construction in Tracy has plummeted. Construction has also slowed down in neighboring Lathrop, and sales of existing homes dropped sharply in the south county in 2006. 'In general, there is an abundance of homes on the...

The December numbers are out for the Phoenix area in Arizona. "With 4,620 sales recorded in December, the 2006 Greater Phoenix resale home market continued to slow, with 5,040 sales in November 2006, and 6,480 sales for a year ago. This is the lowest level of activity for 2006 and the lowest for...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "M/I Homes, Inc. homes delivered in 2006's fourth quarter were 1,363, decreasing 16% from 2005's record-high 1,616. New contracts for the twelve months ended December 31, 2006 were 35% below 2005's. The Company experienced a 63% cancellation...

The Times Herald Record reports from New York. "During the final three months of the year, the median price of single-family homes sold in Orange County fell to $315,000, down $10,000 from a year ago, according to the Orange County Association of Realtors. The number of homes sold in Orange and...

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The Review Journal reports from Nevada. "By Fortune Magazine's reckoning, Las Vegas in the next two years will turn in the second-worst housing performance in the nation. 'Las Vegas was one of the most frothy markets in (in 2004 and 2005), and a lot of that price appreciation was due to...

The Tribune reports from Colorado. "Foreclosures hit a record high in 2006. Weld County foreclosures hit 2,073 for 2006, more than 500 more than in 2005, according to the Public Trustee's Office. And through the first three working days of 2007, 45 more foreclosures had been filed with that...

CNN Money reports from Florida. "Jonas Lee's doing the most critical part of his job: scoping out homes for his investment firm, Redbrick Partners, to add to its growing stable of rental properties. Lee is doing more drive-bys than ever these days. A handful of housing markets, such as southern...

WILX reports from Michigan. "If you're looking to buy a home, now's the time to do so. There are more than 4,100 homes on the market in the greater Lansing area. 'I think the decline that we've seen is not going to occur,' said Tomie Raines Realty President Debbie D'Valentine." "It can't get much...

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The Ventura County Star reports from California. "The house was unfinished, but Ann and Rusty Colemon closed the deal for their new Moorpark Highlands home anyway in December. In exchange for signing before the end of the year, they say builder Pardee Homes offered them nicer fixtures and no...

A housing report from the Las Vegas Sun. "Prompted by falling home prices, the Clark County assessor's office has reduced the assessed value of some homes by more than 10 percent. The reductions give dramatic evidence that a cycle of rapid appreciation has ended in the Las Vegas Valley." "Of the...

Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street. "D.R. Horton Inc.'s sales orders for new homes fell 23% during the first quarter from a year earlier, the company said. The drop comes as home builders facing higher buyer cancellations in midst of a U.S. housing slowdown offer more inducements to sell...

The Wall Street Journal reports from Florida. "Plenty of investors, who purchased homes to rent or flip, continued to buy and sell through the height of the boom. One of them was Marjorie Dresner. The Canadian native believed that Naples would long be an attractive market. A prolific investor, she...

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The Ventura County Star reports from California. "Brian and Karry Hill moved to RiverPark because of the promise of a dream neighborhood. But much of their utopia is still acres of dirt and dusty roads. Until the massive development on the edge of Oxnard is finished in coming years, the Hills will...