The Housing Bubble Blog

Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.

From Euphoria to Revulsion

News Letter reports from Northern Ireland. "A growing number of towns in Britain now have average property prices in excess of £1m. According to Lloyds Bank, there are now a number of locations outside London with such a high typical home price. It will be many years indeed before any town in...
Read more (28 comments)

The Kind Of Increases We Saw Before The Bubble Burst

The Toledo Blade reports from Ohio. "Home building in Perrysburg is in a resurgence. The city has home builder plats awaiting final approval, with just shy of 1,000 lots, said Brody Walters, Perrysburg’s zoning and planning administrator. During 2008 and 2009, the number of new homes built fell...
Read more (38 comments)

What's The Alternative?

A weekend topic on a pair of articles related to the housing bubble. MarketWatch, "President Barack Obama was in Phoenix earlier this year to talk up something as hot as the desert sun—housing. In a January speech, he announced a new Federal Housing Administration policy to lower the mortgage...
Read more (95 comments)

A Herd Mentality That The Market Is Sliding

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Phoenix’s housing market is shifting. 'We’ve been talking for months about a growing sellers’ market, but it looks like now it’s starting to cool off just a little bit,' Tina Tamboer of the Cromford Report said. Tamboer said, while it’s still a...
Read more (49 comments)

The Rocks Reveal Themselves

The Marin Independent Journal reports from California. "After an almost uninterrupted streak of increases over the last few years, the median price of a Marin home fell 14 percent in September, to $970,000, according to CoreLogic. In this case, the drop in the median price is more apparent than...
Read more (61 comments)

It's Wrong To Say We Know Too Little About Bubbles

Fort McMurray Today reports from Canada. "September housing prices and sales have fallen from their 2014 averages, according to statistics from Fort McMurray Realtors. The downturn continues to affect housing sales as statistics show single family detached home sales are down by over a third from...
Read more (40 comments)

Getting Ourselves In Trouble Again

The World Herald reports from Nebraska. "When Legacy Homes sank roots in Omaha nearly four years ago, its leaders talked of filling the void left by a popular volume builder that had catered to entry-level homebuyers. The business plan changed. Manager Allen Grimes said his house lot costs have...
Read more (47 comments)

A Hall Of Mirrors

The second weekend topic, looking forward, is Peak to Peak: Where In Today's Boom/Bust Cycle Does the U.S. Find Itself? By Danielle DiMartino Booth. The bursting of the housing bubble, which to this day remains a thorn in the lumber industry’s side, and today’s commodities bubble, currently...
Read more (66 comments)

The Incidence Of Error

The first of two weekend topics, this one looking back at what happened, by Jim Grant. "A review of Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again, by Peter J. Wallison. Fannie and Freddie did the deed, according to Peter J. Wallison’s...
Read more (36 comments)