Bay Area Real Estate Trends

Interesting graph comparing Japanese home prices to the Case-Shiller index before and after the housing bubbles burst. Hat-tip Kevin Depew:

Wall St Journal, by way of Calculated Risk had some housing comments recently along the lines of markets “improving from the bottom up“. They referenced some data suggesting a surge in buying activity within lower price sectors of real estate in New York and New Jersey. They continued with analyst commentary suggesting that it was [...]

Many people assume that China is somehow immune from a housing crisis because buyers typically put down large down-payments. This is bass-ackwards. China is far more susceptible to economic catastrophe specifically because it is the people, not the banks, that will suffer the most. A culture of savings is watching it disappear. Combine this massive destruction [...]

1. Too Many People Bought Too Many Homes From The New York Fed: At the peak of the boom in 2006, over a third of all U.S. home purchase lending was made to people who already owned at least one house. In the four states with the most pronounced housing cycles, the investor share was [...]

$400,000 condos rent for $600 per month. I love the hot water heater part… I don’t care if they put down 50%. They are going to lose it.

While the bubble itself has popped, we as a society remain driven by the same greed and egomania that got us into trouble in the first place. We are traveling the down same road as before, in the same direction. Despite the warning signs and mounting debts, we still think this is the road to [...]