The Housing Bubble Blog

The Denver Business Journal reports from Colorado. "Affordable apartments are hard to find in the Denver metro area, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Colorado Division of Housing. Usually an improving economy is good news, but said Kathi Williams, director of the Colorado Division of...

The Morning Call reports from Pennsylvania. "Average home prices in the Lehigh Valley fell last month, the surest sign yet that the local home market is in retreat from the sales frenzy of the past few years. The number of homes sold, which has fallen six consecutive months." "Buyers have their...

The Bradenton Herald reports from Florida. "Fortune Magazine has named Bradenton/Sarasota in its top 10 housing markets ready for a fall. Ranking the area number seven, the magazine projects local home prices will tumble 4.8 percent in 2007. Home prices started to see a correction as early as the...

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The Sacramento Bee reports from California. "A North Carolina-based lending policy group contends that 21 percent of so-called 'subprime' loans taken out in 2006 by Sacramento-area borrowers are likely to end in foreclosure and aggravate an already flat housing market. 2005 brought 26,800 subprime...

A housing report from the Idaho Statesman. "Treasure Valley home sales in November have dropped again, compared to either the banner sales year of 2005 or 2004, a more realistic sales year to most in the housing industry. It's the third straight month that housing sales in the Valley were down from...

The press looks at the new subprime report. "A new Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) study reveals that 2.2 million American households will lose their homes and as much as $164 billion due to foreclosures in the subprime mortgage market." "'In the subprime sector, the most vulnerable borrowers...

The News Observer reports from North Carolina. "The coastal housing boom of the past few years has come to a screeching halt. In Myrtle Beach, new and existing condo sales dropped 37 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier. In Wilmington existing home sales fell 17 percent in the same...

The News Times reports from Connecticut. "The median prices of both single-family homes and condominiums in Connecticut declined in October, the first time in nearly a decade that both have declined in the same month. 'We looked at the state prices for the third quarter of the year, and prices...

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The Press Democrat reports from California. "To counteract sluggish sales, home builders in the Bay Area and Sonoma County increasingly have been forced to whack prices and offer incentives to lure buyers. Through November, new homes sales were down 32 percent in the Bay Area, compared to the same...

The Capitol Times reports from Wisconsin. "Wisconsin ranked 29th nationally in foreclosure rates in November, after ranking 35th in October and 37th in September, RealtyTrac reported." "The state had 881 properties in some state of foreclosure in November, one for every 2,614 households. In...

Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. CNN Money, "Home building activity rebounded from a six-year low in November but builders' applications for future projects fell to the lowest in nine years, the government said Tuesday in a report suggesting the worst is not over for the...

The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "Another Southwest Florida home builder has exited, leaving dozens of customers with unfinished homes and regulators dealing with a third-party contractor who qualified the company's permits. Sarasota-based Avalon Homes left its offices unfurnished, unlocked...

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The Daily Democrat reports from California. "California home sales declined last month to the lowest level for November in eight years, and prices fell on an annual basis in eight of the most populous counties, a real estate research firm reported, with the most pronounced drops occurring in...

A housing report from the Arizona Republic. "In another sign that the condo conversion market is declining, a company that was converting a large Tempe apartment complex to condos announced Friday that it is going to lease the units as apartments instead." "The CG Development Group, of Chicago,...

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "U.S. homebuilders' sentiment dipped slightly in December, although they expressed greater confidence for mid-2007, the National Association of Home Builders said on Monday. The index fell one point to 32 but held above the 15-year low of 30...

The Daily News Journal reports from Tennessee. "While the high cost of housing may have stalled in other parts of the country, the housing market in Rutherford County continues to flourish in a way that benefits buyers, sellers and home builders for homes in most price ranges up to $300,000, said...

The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "Not many developments here can boast the views of the massive SevenShores condominium project planned for land straddled by Anna Maria Sound and Perico Bayou. Thirteen condo towers will eventually rise above the mangroves lining the encircling shoreline....