The Housing Bubble Blog

Danielle DiMartino has this on declining home ownership. "The evidence of a deflating housing bubble is spreading to places less visible to the naked eye. The evidence has segued to the subtle in three ways; mounting mortgage interest expenses, a declining homeownership rate and a rising...

Some housing bubble updates on Florida. From the Palm Beach Post, "Amid the month's first cluster of mortgage defaults and property liens are four Tiara condos lost to post-hurricane rehab bills. The condo association charged 320 unit owners $48,000 to $72,000 each to begin reconstruction. But the...

The Time Herald Record in New York reports on an end to a trend that accompanied the housing bubble. "Builders who came through local planning boards carrying plans for a dozen 3,500-square-foot homes and visions of $700,000 price tags are chopping hundreds of feet off those homes and tens or even...

Several readers want your opinion on this: "How about, which type of housing will lose more value, and which will hold up better?: 1) Condos in established urban centers (NY, SF, Chic, Phil, Boston)? 2) Condos in recreated urban centers (LA, Milwaukee)? 3) Exurban McMansions in developing areas far...

What are you observing in your housing market this weekend? Here are some from across the US, starting with posts from the topics thread. "We are down 5-10% here in Northern Virginia / DC Area suburbs. I have friends selling a townhouse in Ashburn asking 400k when similar comps from fall of 2005...

The Chicago Tribune announces, 'It's a buyer's market.' "It's been a long time, at least five years, since the Chicago area's real estate market worked this way. Homes sell in months, not hours. Prospective buyers actually browse. They drift back for a second look at a place weeks later, confident...

Some readers are guessing what phase of the housing bubble we are in. "Have we finally passed the denial stage in the unwinding of this bubble?" Another said, "I was thinking the same thing. My take has been that lately I have noticed the media as well as 'experts' who have been bubble doubters (or...

Here's a place to put off topic links and Craigslist items. As mentioned before, this is not intended to discourage posting elsewhere Also, don't forget to snap some housing bubble photos and mail them to: photos@thehousingbubbleblog.com

An editorialist is changing his forecast in Orlando, Florida. "Back in February I said your house would not be worth any more by the end of the year. I am updating that to say it may be worth less. Our economy and job market is booming. These are not conditions conducive to a real-estate meltdown....

A pair of reports on high risk loans. "Millions of Americans who have financed their homes with adjustable-rate short-term mortgages, some of which require interest-only payments, are starting to see their monthly payments rise as low introductory rates expire and market rates kick in." "'I just...

Many readers see anecdotal evidence of the collapsing housing bubble at the mall. "If you look at graphs in the SD Union Tribune article, it appears that the housing market tanked just before/at the same time unemployment went up. The poor job market DID NOT cause the housing bubble to collapse; it...

The Idaho Statesman reports on where the speculators went. "For the first time, the average sale price of Ada County houses is more than a quarter-million dollars, real-estate industry data show. You can thank, or blame, job growth and Californians." "Yet the boom contains the seeds of a slowdown,...

A housing bubble update on Las Vegas. "Valley home sales took an across-the-board shellacking in April. There were only 2,230 new homes sold last month, an 11.5 percent drop from March and 28.7 percent lower than a year ago, reports the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors." "Median home sale...

Several readers are interested in post housing bubble rents. "What will happen to rental rates in a real-estate bust. Will rents go up as more people decide to rent rather than buy, or will they go down as the number of vacant homes balloons and investors resort to renting to get some sort of...

The Washington Post has this on cancellations. "As the housing market cools, builders are reporting that more people are walking away from contracts and from tens of thousands of dollars in deposits. Wall Street analysts say the Washington market is among those seeing the highest percentages of...

Time to clear off the desk and start the weekend. "Allow me to offer a new twist on an old gag. Question: 'How can you tell when a home-selling industry insider is lying?' Answer: 'His lips are moving.'" "Now, now. I'm not talking about specific agents here (although if you want to hear the one...

ABC has this preview of a show on flipping in Florida. "'Flipping' in real estate lingo means buying and quickly reselling properties for big profits. In south Florida and other popular real estate markets, it got to the point where people were buying and flipping contracts on condos before they'd...

The Arizona Republic has these updates on the states' housing bubble. "Skeptics might question the depth of the Valley's luxury condominium market but developers in downtown Scottsdale remain confident their projects will succeed. Townhouses, lofts and condos are stacking up on the downtown skyline...

Another Fortune piece on the housing bubble. "The most troubled sector of the housing market, the one that will fall first and fastest, is the condominium market. Typically cheaper than houses and easier to buy, sell or rent out, condos are catnip for investors. 'I estimate that 80 percent of the...

Some housing bubble reports on Denver. "The number of unsold homes on the Denver-area market hit a record 29,045 in April, according to reports released Thursday. Rising foreclosures were the driving force for the skyrocketing inventory, which is 19.2 percent higher than a year ago, experts said."...