The Housing Bubble Blog

Some housing bubble reports from Massachusetts. "Home sales in Massachusetts tumbled 16.6 percent and condominium sales declined 14.3 percent in June. As homes stay on the market longer, the supply of unsold homes is growing, putting pressure on prices." "'Prices are going to go down, there's no...

The Florida Press reacts to the June home sales. "Roxanne Arnold quit her job and started flipping houses. But now a three-bedroom Fort Lauderdale town house she owns has sat on the market for more than year, and things are so slow that she just got a part-time job." "'Everyone that needs a home to...

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The California realtors have their June numbers out. "California home sales plunged 26.3 percent in June compared to last year while the median price of an existing home increased 6.2 percent, an industry trade association reported today." "'Mortgage interest rates rates continued to edge up for...

The Florida realtors have their June numbers out. "Rising mortgage rates, rising inventory levels, rising insurance premiums and higher energy costs impacted Florida's housing sector in June, as the state's housing market continued to adjust. A total of 18,089 existing single-family homes sold...

Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. "Centex Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. home builder, on Monday said its net profit fell 31 percent and orders were off 21 percent, prompting the company to slash its forecast in another sign of the eroding U.S. housing market. 'Centex is...

The Massachusetts realtors have the June numbers out. "Home sales in Massachusetts tumbled 16.6 percent in June, while condominium sales declined 14.3 percent, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported in its monthly report today on the state's housing market." "While sales were down...

The existing home sales numbers are out. "Sales of existing homes fell in June for the eighth time in the past 10 months while home prices edged up at the slowest pace in more than a decade, more signs that the housing market has slowed dramatically. The median price of a home sold last month was...

A pair of reports from Florida. "Southwest Florida home builders, many of whom are still finishing residences ordered last year, are bracing themselves for the day when those jobs dry up by trimming their work forces through attrition and, in a few cases, through actual layoffs." "'WCI has adjusted...

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The Wall Street Journal has this report on appraisal fraud. "As the housing market cools, Americans are confronting a problem that was easy to ignore during the boom: Inflated appraisals of home values. Critics have long warned that many appraisals are unrealistically high. That's partly because...

A pair of reports from the Denver Post. "The cooling housing market has homebuilders throughout the nation girding for fewer sales, larger inventories and stiffer competition for people in the market for new homes. Last week, Denver-based MDC Holdings, which operates as Richmond American, reported...

Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. Paul Muolo, "According to a new report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, 'stated-income loans' deserve their nickname of the 'liar's loan.' MARI says that almost 60% of the stated-income amounts are exaggerated by more than 50%."...

The Palm Beach Post has a preview of tomorrows existing home sales number. "Have existing home prices in Palm Beach County finally started to fall? After peaking in November at a median of $421,500, existing home prices have languished around $390,000 all year. Some observers are privately saying...

The Voice of San Diego has this report on the condo market. "A couple of weeks ago, Bob Pinnegar was discussing with his colleagues what to call the phenomenon in San Diego real estate: the condo conversions that are now reverting back to rental units." "Pinnegar, executive director of the San...

The Asbury Park Press has this update from New Jersey. "Once red hot, the market for new homes in New Jersey has begun to cool. 'The frenzy in the real estate market that we have experienced in the last three or four years is no longer in existence,' said Tom Critelli, president of Danitom...

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Some housing bubble updates from California. Bakersfield, "The once-frenzied market has slowed to a crawl, and builders are going out of their way to entice buyers into their half-built neighborhoods. 'They already own thousands of lots that they still have to use up,' Alan Nevin, chief economist...

The collapsing housing bubble in Florida is impossible to ignore. "It's not a pretty picture over at the 550Q condo project planned for downtown West Palm Beach. The luxe condo with the artsy theme 'is being put on hold until we can rethink market conditions,' said Burt Minkoff, 550Q's sales...

The Lowell Sun has this update from Massachusetts. "Local real-estate agents are altering their outlook, and tactics, as the Massachusetts housing market cools. 'The key is to price the property correctly,' said Dan Sullivan in Chelmsford. 'The market isn't catching up.'" "For Coldwell Banker, the...