The Housing Bubble Blog

A report from the Washington Examiner. "Conservatives who are pushing for the elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Monday gave President Trump a blueprint for phasing out the government-sponsored enterprises by himself. Analysts with the American Enterprise Institute and other...

A report from the Arizona Republic. "The five-story central Phoenix brownstone mansions known as Chateau on Central are being renamed, and the developer is lowering the remaining homes' prices. The 21-urban home development will now be called The Arris. And prices for the 12 brownstones that...

A weekend topic starting with the Daily Nation in Kenya. "The real estate sector, which accounts for about 9 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, has consistently outperformed other asset classes in the past decade, incurring minimal losses while consistently generating returns of between 25 per cent and 30...

A report from The Oregonian. "Portland’s apartment-building binge appears to be headed off a cliff. Applications for new housing developments have nearly ground to a halt over the past year, and there are plenty of reasons for that. Construction costs have ballooned, as have land prices. The glut...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "An investment company could score a major victory this week in its alleged hostile takeover of a 1990s Miami Beach condo-hotel. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko has set a three-day trial beginning Tuesday to decide the outcome of...

A report from the Toronto Star in Canada. "The dip in Toronto’s housing market means there’s a different dynamic at play between sellers and buyers this year. An analysis by Zoocasa shows more neighbourhoods have become buyer’s markets — areas where there is enough competition among sellers that...

A report from the Star Telegram in Texas. "Patti Sue Kirkey makes decent money with periodic raises, as a project manager for a mortgage company. Kirkey's experience illustrates an unfortunate reality in North Texas. By and large, wages are not increasing fast enough for residents to keep pace with...

A report from the Globe and Mail in Canada. "The Toronto housing market's rotten January has thrown a scare into veteran mortgage broker John Cocomile. A lot of Mr. Cocomile's business in recent years has been mortgage refinancings. What worries Mr. Cocomile is that the latest developments in...

A report from CNBC. "Scan the downtowns of the nation's largest cities, and you are likely to see a staggering array of cranes. Most of them are helping to build luxury apartment buildings. In fact, multifamily construction is now at a 40-year high; the trouble is, developers are putting up the...

A weekend topic starting with Western Farm Press. "Aggressively accommodative global governments and central banks have an agenda to extend the business cycle and to maintain global economic momentum at all costs. These actions likely will create market bubbles or excessive movements in financial...

A weekend topic starting with Fox 17 in Michigan. "There’s no doubt about it, Grand Rapids is a seller’s market. If you’re selling a home, people are virtually lining up with offers. 'I never thought it was going to be like this. It’s like war,' says Tanesha Gadlen. 'We looked at eight houses this...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "There are signs that the long slide in North Texas home mortgage defaults may be over. 'Dallas was one of the markets where we saw an uptick in foreclosure starts in late 2017,' said Daren Blomquist, chief economist for Attom Data Solutions. 'This...

A report from KRON 4 in California. "San Francisco is at the heart of the Bay Area housing crises. You see construction everywhere, but most of us are priced out of being able to afford to live in a luxury high-rise. 'We have 1,000 apartments that are in, what we call, the pipeline,' said Karoleen...

A report from Mansion Global. "U.S. luxury markets have entered a 'new normal' of subdued price growth after eight years of frenzied appreciation post-recession, according to Coldwell Banker Global Luxury. The report underscores high-end price stabilization that Mansion Global has previously...

A report from ABC News in Australia. "If you needed a sign Brisbane has an apartment oversupply, a two-bedroom unit with city views in one of the most trendy suburbs has just gone for $50,000 less than it was bought for two years ago. The Paddington unit, which sold for $440,000 after it was...

A report from Bisnow in Washington DC. "D.C.'s investment sales market started off hot in 2018, but amid an environment with falling multifamily rents and tepid office leasing, some investors think deals are being overpriced and are shying away from buying in the District. Crowdfunding platform...

A weekend topic on one place with one article from The Spinoff in New Zealand. "The mass migration has ended. Gone are the convoys of removal vans thundering down the Southern Motorway, and the scenes of Aucklander vs Aucklander vs Aucklander mayhem in Tauranga auction rooms. Gone too, as a result...

A weekend topic starting with the Post Bulletin. "Long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed for the fifth straight week amid investors' growing concern about inflation. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages shot up to 4.32 percent this week, up from...

It's Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. "The number of people packing up and moving out of the Bay Area just hit its highest level in more than a decade. Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s own study of the out-migration says workers are moving due to a number of factors. But topping the list...

A report from My Twin Tiers in Pennsylvania. "A new report says Pennsylvania has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. Last year, nearly 31,000 properties across the Commonwealth were foreclosed, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. Some housing agencies say part of the problem is due...