The Housing Bubble Blog

A weekend topic starting with Housing Wire. "It’s been more than three years since Freddie Mac rolled out a conventional mortgage that only required a 3% down payment for certain borrowers. The program, which is designed for qualified low-and moderate-income borrowers, saw reasonable progress over...

A report from the Mercury News in California. "The soaring cost of construction could hobble efforts in San Jose and other Bay Area cities to speed development of high-density housing such as apartment towers, according to a foreboding assessment being circulated in the South Bay. Even worse, while...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "For Melissa Anderson cruising real estate web sites has become an obsession. Newly married and a native of the Pacific Northwest, the 28-year-old who works in medical sales said she and her husband are ready to grow their family, or at least add...

A report from KY 3 in Missouri. "If you're a seller, you can feel pretty good about the market right now. Tyler and Samantha Richardson own Richardson Real Estate, but they double-up as house flippers like the ones so popular on TV these days, gutting and renovating homes. As to the reason more...

A report from CBC News in Canada. "A real estate agent from West Vancouver has brought housing market uncertainty into his divorce proceedings, arguing a slowdown caused by government policies has made his family's jet-setting lifestyle unsustainable. Jason Soprovich's realty company, of which he...

A report from National Mortgage Professional. "A combination of low inventory and a greater interest in homeownership is fueling a wave of residential property bidding wars among buyers across the country. According to Realtor.com, the capital of the ongoing housing bidding wars is Akron, Ohio....

A report from the Beacon Hill Times in Massachusetts. "Plaguing the commercial and residential districts throughout the city, empty storefronts and vacant apartments are making it seem that Boston is experiencing market failure, despite the strong economy, real estate values and low unemployment...

A report from Drumheller Online in Canada. "With mixed national and provincial headines stating that the buyers market is not a place for new home owners, Don Rosgen with Century 21 in Drumheller said the local market is, in fact, a buyers market. 'Right now, we're in the buyers market. Normally we...

A report from The Spectrum in Utah. "St. George-area housing prices keep climbing, interest rates are expected to jump again, and first-time homebuyers Giovanni and Jennifer Trumbo are feeling the pressure to buy while they can still afford it. The Trumbos, who are in their early 30s, are...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors says a rise in cost of 2 ½ to 5 percent would be comfortable for the market. From last year to now, the median home price is up four times that, rising 20 percent. Median home prices have hit the $400,000 mark...

A report from the Charlotte Agenda in North Carolina. "For nearly a decade, Charlotte’s high-end apartment market has boomed. Developers bought up land in the city’s hottest neighborhoods and built luxury communities, each one fancier than the last. Rent continued to climb, and each new building...

A report from Global News on Canada. "When we visited Ellisa Atherton’s living room in Ajax, Ont., in early March, it was crammed – wall to wall to wall to wall – with boxes. In the middle of the room, walled in by boxes, was the family’s Christmas tree – Atherton had put it up so it could be a...

A report from Real Estate Weekly on New York. "A new report is showing a pause in Manhattan’s new development market, but that isn’t deterring a stream of buildings entering the city in the next few months. Halstead’s vice president of research and analytics Matthew Petrallia said it will generate...

A report from MarketWatch. "The National Association of Home Builders’ monthly confidence gauge ticked down one point to a reading of 69 in April, the group said Monday. The closely-watched sentiment tracker from the home builder lobby group hit its highest point since 1999 in December, and has...

A report from the Vancouver Courier in Canada. "As housing sales dropped to the lowest level in five years, Metro Vancouver new home starts have soared in the first quarter of the year, with starts in Vancouver alone more than twice as high as during the same period in 2017. There were 6,542 home...

A weekend topic starting with some comments from the past week. "Of course, this effort to broadly reflate house prices is no big secret (mostly - the Federal Reserve transcripts below from 2009 were released in 2015). And when all the central banks are playing from the same playbook, one sees a...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "In Houston’s housing market, the Harvey effect is wearing off. Home sales fell in March for the first time since last year’s hurricane, a new report shows. Bernie Otten, whose house took on about four inches of water during Harvey, thought about...

A report from Bloomberg on Canada. "Toronto’s housing market has seen a stunning slowdown in the past year. Now one brokerage has cataloged the damage for 988 homeowners who got caught in the eye of the hurricane. In the space of four months last year, the homeowners lost a collective $135 million...

A report from the Seattle Times in Washington. "The slowdown in Seattle-area rent increases that began late last year has continued into the first part of 2018, as the crush of new apartments opening across the region catches up with demand in the fast-growing region. The recent cooldown has now...

A report from Curbed New York. "The federal tax overhaul appears to be affecting New York real estate already. Namely, New Yorkers aren’t buying—the past three months marked Manhattan’s lowest sales quarter total in more than six years as well as the largest annual decline in nine years according...