The Housing Bubble Blog

The Olympian in Washington reports on the now familiar signs of a housing bubble bursting. "The South Sound real estate market is beginning to evolve from a seller’s market to more of a buyer’s market as inventory levels rise and home prices decline, according to Olympic MLS data released...

The Boston Herald reports on the 'affordable' part of town. "New figures show house prices in Boston’s traditionally affordable neighborhoods rising at a double-digit clip even as foreclosure woes in those areas soar. The Boston Department of Neighborhood Development reported yesterday that median...

The St, Petersburg Times reports on the FDIC study. " Amid a generally bullish report on the U.S. and Florida economy released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., banking regulators cited two potential, and related, trouble spots. First is the growing inventory of unsold homes, up...

One homebuilder had this out after the bell. "Homebuilder Brookfield Homes Corp on Wednesday said net orders for the first quarter fell to 227 units from 517 units a year ago, saying the decline was primarily in the San Diego/Riverside and Washington D.C. markets." "In January 2006, the company...

National Mortgage News has a link to an American Banker story on option ARM's. "For home lenders, 2005 may go down as the year that disclosure of details on option ARMs began to achieve critical mass. Information on activity in the niche had long been elusive; among the biggest participants, Downey...

The Washington Post looks at that areas reliance on the housing bubble. "The U.S. economy is more dependent on housing than it has been in a half-century, as the sector fuels consumer spending and has accounted for nearly three-quarters of the nation's job growth in the past five years." "As a...

The NAR has this press release with details on the speculator numbers. "Most investment home buyers are in the South, 38 percent of the total. Buyers in the Midwest and Western regions each purchased 24 percent of investment property, and the Northeast, 15 percent." The Houston Chronicle reports on...

The USA Today reports that speculative home buying is through the roof. "Americans snapping up second homes, as investments or vacation properties, accounted for four out of every 10 sales of existing homes last year, a record that helped drive the real estate market to new highs, according to a...

The Star Bulletin has an update on Hawaii. "Even Oahu's heavy rain couldn't dampen the island's residential real estate market, although it's anyone's guess why March sales volume rose from the previous year. The March rise in sales volume wasn't great enough to offset the losses in January and...

Some reports on Floridas' housing bubble. "Some U.S. retailers have seen a slowdown in sales recently that could be a response to higher interest rates and a slowing housing market, a top private equity investor said on Tuesday. 'It's been so sudden that it could just be a temporary blip, but from...

Some reports on the lending side of the housing bubble. "The Seattle FHLBank said that "recent negative public policy views on the systemic risks presented by GSEs and accounting and other announcements by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHLBanks have, at times, created pressure on debt pricing, as...

The alarm bells keep ringing for the US housing bubble. "Forty-eight of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas face a greater risk of declining home prices this quarter, an industry report found today. House-price appreciation has slowed in nearly half of the metropolitan...

Some News from the FDIC. "Nearly three out of four of Atlanta-based banks are heavily weighted in construction and development loans and could face trouble if the housing market continues to cool. Eighty-seven of the 118 banks with headquarters in Atlanta have high concentrations of construction...

A writer for the Kansas City Star compares his housing market to California's. "There’s nothing like a quick trip to la-la land to reset your calibrations on the real estate market. After hearing some of the chatter about California real estate, I was more thankful than ever to live in the...

The New York realtors have their February numbers out. "Sales of existing single-family homes in New York slowed in February, according to preliminary single-family sales data accumulated by the New York State Association of Realtors. The February 2006 sales total decreased 6.4 percent to 5,197...

A reader found this St. Petersburg Times article on flippers. "As the real estate market blasted into high orbit last year, Jeff Lilly sank some of his savings into four investment homes in MiraBay. But Lilly is feeling less like a real estate genius this month. About a fifth of the neighborhood is...

The Connecticut Business Journal reports on the housing bubble in that state. "Whether an anomaly or a harbinger of spring, the housing market appears to be cooling, even at the high end of the spectrum. 'Throughout New Haven County as well as throughout Connecticut there is a softening, which...

The Arizona Republic interviews a homebuilder in the Phoenix area. "Fulton Homes started in the East Valley, but it is developing property around the Phoenix area. Doug Fulton, president, talked with The Arizona Republic about home building in the Valley and where he sees it going." "Q: How do you...

USA Today has this report on adjustable rate home loans. "The real estate market is cooling, interest rates are rising and tens of thousands more Americans are starting to have trouble paying their mortgages. Nearly 25% of mortgages, 10 million, carry adjustable interest rates. And most of them...

The Orlando Business Journal reports on bankers concern about the condo conversion rush. "Concerned about too many units going up for sale at once, lenders on Central Florida condominium conversions apparently are tightening some requirements while being more selective about borrowers and projects....