The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Georgia Straight in Canada. "Local real-estate agents are finding it much tougher to generate income through commissions. That's because July's residential sales fell to their lowest level in that month since 2000 in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's territory. It...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Housing and rates are worrying some economists that a recession is looming. How could this happen again? Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Stifel, believes that a decade of rock-bottom interest rates helped people forget about the dangers of...

A report from Global News on Canada. "The number of real estate sales in Greater Vancouver hit its lowest level since the year 2000, according to data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. What’s more, condo prices dropped for the first time since January 2017. Vancouver realtor Steve...

A report from the Financial Times on New York. "Home sales have slowed down this year in the Hamptons, bringing the median price below the $1m mark. Second-quarter sales fell 12.8 percent from 2017 levels, according to data prepared for Douglas Elliman by Miller Samuel Real Estate. The median price...

A report from the Globe and Mail in Canada. "It has been two years since the provincial government, then led by the B.C. Liberals, slapped a 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers in the Vancouver region. In February, 2018, the B.C. NDP minority government raised that tax to 20 per cent and also...

A report from CNN Money. "After an unusually calm 2017, volatility is making a comeback. The turbulence appears to be a side effect of the Federal Reserve starting last fall to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. In a bid to revive the economy and stock market, the Fed took the unusual step in...

A report from the Globe and Mail in Canada. "In Canada’s fourth-largest city and one of its fastest growing and strongest economies, homes sales continue to trend downward compared with 2017, while home listings continue to grow. But rather than panic, many owners and buyers in the market have kept...

A report from The Real Deal. "According to the National Association of Realtors‘ new survey cited by the Wall Street Journal, the number of purchases by international buyers fell by 21 percent between 2017 and 2018, amounting to a drop of $32 billion. It’s the largest decline on the books. Though...

A report from the Toronto Star in Canada. "There are fledgling signs of recovery in the Toronto region’s real estate market. But those have come too late for homebuyers like Abid Mirza and his fiancée, Sapna Singh, who bought a pre-construction home in Barrie at the height of the market in February...

A report from the Bellingham Herald in Washington. "Rents in Bellingham and other Whatcom County cities have declined in the past several months according to a new study, but local observers say they’re not seeing rent declines and don’t see the housing crisis easing. Average monthly rent for the...

A report from the Manteca Bulletin in California. "Housing affordability in Manteca along with Stockton and Lodi is sinking back to pre-Great Recession levels. Data for the three cities puts the median household income at $63,000 with the median resale home costing $365,000. Based on those...

A Saturday desk clearing post on international markets. "A proposal for a downtown Vancouver luxury condo tower that was scheduled to go to a public hearing next week has been abruptly cancelled by the owner. It’s a sign of what some see as a shift in Vancouver’s hot real estate market, as the...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "While prices continue to rise, Mike Figura, Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty's owner, said some indicators do suggest a gradual cooling of the local market. For instance, both Asheville and Buncombe had fewer home sales overall in the first half of...

A report from Michigan Biz. "West Michigan commercial real estate industry insiders see signs of a genuinely healthy market, albeit one that’s likely plateaued. With several large-scale projects currently under construction around the region, many wonder what comes next for the area. Q: Why do you...

A report from the Wall Street Journal. "Chinese investors have become net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate for the first time in a decade, reversing a yearslong trend when these buyers spent tens of billions of dollars and helped boost the market for hotels and other properties. Chinese...

A report from News Channel 5 in Tennessee. "About 30 percent of millennial first time home buyers are pulling funds from their 401K, IRA, or borrowing against their retirement funds to afford a down payment, according to a new study. Locally, experts said that trend is not surprising, given how...

A report from the Post Independent in Colorado. "CoreLogic reports that 'over half [of the 52] major U.S. housing markets are overvalued.' And Denver's one of them. This situation probably extends to the entire front range metroplex. So does it mean that we're on the edge of 2008 all over again?...

A weekend topic starting with the Miami Herald in Florida. "When a company called the Flower of Scotland paid $1.13 million — in cash — for a three-bedroom condo in Sunny Isles Beach last year, it had to do something unusual: tell the federal government who its real owner was. In years past, the...

A weekend topic starting with the WJCT in Florida. "A Tallahassee real estate expert is predicting some big changes on the way to the local home buying market. That assessment comes as the community sees an explosion in high-end rental construction. The local expert is Joe Manausa. He has more than...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "Summer has brought a dramatic shift in the Portland-area housing market. Sales have slowed. The inventory of homes is growing. Longtime real estate brokers and market-watchers recognize this new normal as something approaching -- well, normal. And...