The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from Bloomberg. "Japanese government bonds’ steepest tumble in more than three years is feeding speculation that central-bank easing is nearing its limits. A four-day rout pushed 10-year yields to within three basis points of turning positive on Tuesday for the first time since March,...

A report from Bisnow. "Across the country, developers have been racing to deliver new, highly amenitized urban apartment buildings aimed at the growing population of Millennials looking to rent. But some worry this focus on urban living has forced rents up, and the Millennials being targeted for...

The Marina Times reports from California. "Supply and demand still has the final say, even in San Francisco’s wild real estate market. Early this month, developer Trumark Urban is expected to begin selling a batch of units in its $200 million luxury condominium project, The Pacific, located in...

A report from National Mortgage Professional. "As if high default costs haven't been challenging enough for mortgage servicers, a growing number of seriously delinquent loans are Federal Housing Administration products, which require significant upfront investment to resolve. An estimated 25% of...

A report from Boston.com in Massachusetts. "Home prices may be setting new records across the state, but not on Cape Cod. One of the country’s favorite vacation spots, the sandy spit has seen home prices fall during the first six months of 2016, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker &...

A report from MarketWatch. "After years of watching the market favor sellers, many agents say they’ve seen a recent shift that has affected luxury property sales across the globe: We’ve entered a buyer’s market. Jed Garfield, president of Leslie J. Garfield & Co., a New York–based brokerage that...

The New York Times reports on the new money-laundering actions. "More than a quarter of the all-cash luxury home purchases made using shell companies in Manhattan and Miami were flagged as suspicious in a new effort to unearth money laundering in real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday....

A topic on apartments, starting with the Real Deal on Florida. "For the third time in six years, Fort Lauderdale’s Harbour Pointe apartment building has traded hands between investors for a growing price tag. The luxury waterfront apartments were just sold to a joint venture from New York and...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Shares of apartment landlord Equity Residential fell the most since March after the company cut its revenue forecast for the third time this year, citing greater weakness than it anticipated in the Manhattan and San Francisco rental markets. Equity...

The Business News Network reports from Canada. "Foreign investment accounted for about 10 per cent of Vancouver real estate transactions over a five-week span, according to data released Tuesday by the British Columbia government. Of the $8.8 billion-plus in Metro Vancouver real estate transactions...

The New Daily reports from Australia. "A Sydney real estate boss has branded young city dwellers 'generation selfish' for refusing to cut back on widescreen TVs, Netflix, fashionable clothes and craft beer to get a footing in the property market, unlike thriftier generations of the past. Malcolm...

KARE 11 reports from Minnesota. "When real estate agent JJ Korman showed homes a few years ago, he knew it might take several visits before he got an offer. But this year, buyers are nearly knocking down his door. 'Back then maybe we’d get a 15 to 20 showing amount in the first month,' said Korman,...

The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. "A powerful combination of low mortgage rates, high demand, and few choices have pushed home prices in Greater Boston and across the state to record highs. The median sale price of a single-family home in the metro region was $585,000 in June, and for...

A report from Bloomberg. "It turns out that even the well-off need help in a housing market as crazy as the one in the San Francisco Bay area, and lenders are elbowing each other in a rush to provide it. They’re courting Silicon Valley workers with tailored loans, guaranteed 24-hour approval and...

The Register-Guard reports from Oregon. "Across Lane County, and especially in Eugene, many local real estate agents and housing market analysts say prices are rising at a pace not seen since the pre-recession boom years more than a decade ago. The record-breaking home prices — not just in Eugene...

A report from Bloomberg. "Welcome news for America’s renters could be unhelpful for the Federal Reserve. A 42-year high in the number of apartment buildings under construction points to an impending surge in supply that portends a moderation in the cost of shelter, which in June capped the biggest...

The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports from California. "A closely watched measure of real estate developers’ sentiment turned sharply lower, suggesting a pullback is on the horizon for the region’s go-go office growth. That’s the message from the latest Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast...

The Wall Street Journal reports on New York. "The number of new rental apartments in New York City is expected to surge in the coming years. But the question remains whether that increase will hit the investment market for such buildings like a wave or a ripple. Over the next three years, more than...

The Cape Breton Post reports from Canada. "Housing sales figures released for the second quarter show little good news for Cape Breton’s economy. So far in 2016, residential sales are down 14 per cent in the Cape Breton region, which covers the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and Victoria County....

Two reports from the Denver Post in Colorado. "High plateau — it’s a phrase starting to pop up a lot more in descriptions of metro Denver’s housing market. But the leveling off could require an adjustment in thinking and strategy in a market accustomed to sharp increases in home prices. And someone...