The Housing Bubble Blog

Well, I couldn't sleep, so here I am at 5 AM PST, reading the Economy board at DU.

I saw this site the other day which has lots of interesting information, including comments from markets around the country. Hope it's useful.

www.TheHousingBubbleBlog.com

thanks! :hi:

I'm getting as much from the comments on this blog as I am fron the blogger him/herself.

Good stuff and Thanks.

are large construction corporations that "wouldn't build if they weren't making money." It seems they sell quickly to middlemen, and take the initial profit, but how does that work in a housing market that's slowing down? The realtor mentions that the builders are selling "spec homes", that are "cancelled sales." I don't understand how in a slowing real estate market, these builders can just keep building homes that won't move that fast, and the builders are obviously profiting.

Also, I got a kick out of some overbuilding in Arlington, VA--these condos are going begging, due to the "view."

http://piggington.com/bubble

Prolly been posted before, but if not check it out.

to help us watch the signs of the times, literally.

... our gain. :)

We have a tiny older 2nd home in a resort area. One of the smallest homes there. It increased in value by over $300,000 in about 3 years! Now, - since Dec. the house has fallen $100,000 in price and it is bleeding at the rate of $1,500 - $2,000 a week. It was so overpriced that this drop in price doesn't bother us. But if anyone goes on the Zillow.com site and looks up our house, they could see for themselves how it is falling drastically in price each week. Now, why would ANYONE want to buy a house when they KNOW it is falling so quickly? This is in CA by the way, and all the other homes in this same area are also dropping at this rate. Yet, I never hear on the news about how radically the prices are falling. The bubble is bursting and it is bursting big - right now!

which sucks for me, because i'm trying to buy. waiting for the bubble to bust a bit here in seattle.

Lots of information and quite a few worthwhile comments, from people who seem to know what they're talking about.

The high end real estate business in Florida is in big trouble. Increases in ad valorem tax asessments were capped several years back by the Save our Homes Act. Assessments increases were capped at 3 percent a year. So if you've been living in your property for just a few years since the huge real estate price increases there is no incentive to buy new property or to move. The reason? You'll be buying a huge new real estate tax bill and losing your Save our Homes tax protection at the time you buy.

What's the moral of the story? People who invest in real estate aren't protected. Land developers aren't protected. Middle class working families are. As the backlog of expensive condos and the market for second and third homes dries up with the unreasonable and unaffordable speculative prices, developers and others who made huge bad investments because of the availability of cheap credit are now trying to totally revamp Florida's ad valorem tax system to screw working people by taking off the cap and shifting the tax burden from themselves to people who actually live in their homes for years.

What are elected officials from local government to Jeb Bush doing? They want to remove the tax burden from their speculating land developer friends and place it on home owners by repealing the Save our Homes Act.

This is a sign of a huge liquidity crunch and economic crisis. Solution? Screw the ordinary working family. It won't save the land developers. Why not let them go broke?