The Housing Bubble Blog

A pair of reports provide an update from the northeast. "A majority of people who moved out of Massachusetts last year report they are very satisfied with life in their new state and would not move back, a Boston Globe poll has found. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they live in a home...

A pair of reports on the California housing bubble. "It looks like that long-awaited cool-down in the median price of a San Fernando Valley house arrived in April with an annual increase of 8.2 percent, the first single-digit increase in many months. The final report will be released sometime this...

What are you seeing in your housing market? Motivated sellers in the classified section of the newspaper? Builder incentives on a billboard? Anecdotal accounts of the market slowing down? Here's some from the topics thread. "One of my students told me just yesterday that she and her mother are...

Several readers are looking for home buying strategies for the future. "Weekend Topic suggestion: How can the average Joe or Jane Sixpak maximize their buying power as a bottom approaches in the future? Lowball bidding is one way I have seen discussed here. What about foreclosures? Is that an area...

Post your off topic bits of housing bubble related info here! Also, links and Craigslist finds. Not intended to discourage posting elsewhere. And be sure to send in your bubble photos to:photos@thehousingbubbleblog.com

A New Jersey columnist looks at the housing bubble. "The keynote speaker at a meeting of the New York Society of Certified Financial Planners last week said something that made the audience gasp. Martin Cohen, co-CEO of a firm famous for investing in real-estate investment trusts, simply said it's...

The Arizona Republic reports that news of the housing bust is echoing off the hills around Phoenix. "Home sales are plunging in metropolitan Phoenix, even as record numbers of people decide to put their houses on the market. For now, the median sales price is holding firm. But with the number of...

Some housing bubble news from California. The LA Times, "Guy and Karen Vidal are experiencing something new as they try to sell the small Craftsman house they own in Silver Lake. Since listing it at $699,000 two months ago, they've reduced the price twice, first to $679,000 and then to $659,000 a...

Several readers suggested the Fed chairmans predicament as a topic. Highlights: "I hear a lot about how Ben Bernanke is doing it all wrong. IMO: he has the third hardest job in America right now. It’s easy to criticize. How about this: What would YOU do if you were the Fed Chair?" "Do you go slow...

The Rocky Mountain News has this update on Colorado. "Thousands of Denver homeowners gambled on adjustable rate mortgage loans three years ago. Now those bets are coming up short. These homeowners are facing the hard truth that their ARM mortgage payments are going up several hundred dollars more...

The Canadian National Post looks at the Florida housing bubble. "The U.S. housing market has endured a boom of historic proportions over the past few years. Adjusted for inflation, real price increases have been the highest on record. Jorge Perez, whose Related Group has ridden the recent U.S....

A busy week means a long desk clearing post for this blogger. "The median price of a home on Maui dropped to $690,000 in April, $35,000 less than in March, according to the latest report from the Realtors Association of Maui. Also declining were the number of homes sold, 68 in April compared to 107...

A pair of reports from Canada. "The Toronto housing market is showing signs of softening and a real estate analyst says that means it may have reached a plateau where bidding wars will continue for now but not for long. (Analyst) Jason Mercer says home buyers should not expect prices to drop...

The Arizona press reacts to the April numbers and has some additional information. "The number of houses sold last month isn't very encouraging. At the same time, the number of single-family homes for sale reached what could be a record of 14,782 last month in the Southeast Valley, according to the...

A pair of reports on the California housing bubble. "Has the north state real estate market tipped in the buyers' favor? Two new homes in the Land Park subdivision in northwest Redding were discounted $70,000 this week, slashing the list price to $409,900. The reduction so surprised real estate...

The Boston Herald reports on a housing forecast. "Home prices in Massachusetts could fall another 3 percent this year as the market adjusts to a slow-growing state economy, according to the New England Economic Partnership conference." "But an easing in home prices could make Massachusetts a...

Have a topic on your mind for this weekend? Post it here!

The Arizona numbers for April are out. "The Valley housing market slowed in April, registering the lowest sales total for that month in six years, the Arizona Real Estate Center announced Thursday. The resale market slowed last month to 5,980 sales, a decrease from the 7,264 sales for March 2006...

The Twin Cities realtors have some numbers out. "Home sales in the Twin Cities, Minn., area fell by double digits in April, according to three metro Twin Cities Realtor associations. Realtors reported 3,919 closed home sales last month, down 15.6 percent from a year ago when 4,645 sales were...

Reuters reports on comments by Fannie Maes' CEO. "In response to a question about whether Fannie Mae had identified the major accounting issues with the most dollar-impact on its restatement, CEO Daniel Mudd said, 'Yes.' Mudd would not comment on when Fannie Mae might report 2005 results or return...