Bubble Trouble Updates – Not All Bad

New York City joins housing slump – Bubble Meter - 13 November 08

While the housing bubble decline has adversely affected much of the United States, some previous bubble markets like New York City, Boston, and Washington, DC proper, have been largely resistant. Well, according to Robert Toll, CEO of home builder Toll Brothers, New York City is now taking it on the chin…Unemployment Spurs Rise in US Subprime Delinquencies

Rising unemployment is pushing up delinquencies in US subprime mortgages at an “alarming” rate – CreditSights from Research Recap – 13 November 08

“The latest numbers from our Subprime RMBS sample show a huge jump in delinquencies in the past two months…As the chart shows, delinquencies as a percentage of the remaining balance in 2005 subprime RMBS had even started to fall despite the remaining balances continuing to shrink.”…

Click to Continued read the “not bad” stuff

Las Vegas Home Sales Double – TheStreet.com – DQNews.com – 13 November 08

September sales of existing single-family houses in the Las Vegas region more than doubled from a year ago as the median price paid for those homes dove 31%. Foreclosures rose to 82% of all resales, a real estate information service reported…While the number of single-family houses resold in September shot up 123% from a year ago, the increase in overall transactions was more modest thanks to declining sales for newly built homes…September marked the sixth consecutive month in which sales of existing single-family detached houses rose on a year-over-year basis…Lower prices, especially among foreclosures, are fueling the recent burst in sales, which were the highest for a September since 2005…The median sale price has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 17 consecutive months and is now 34.3% below the region’s peak…The median price paid for resale single-family (detached) houses…down 30.6% from a year ago…median price paid per square foot for resale detached houses fell…34.9% from a year ago and down 43.2% from the…peak reached in June 2006…about 82% of the Las Vegas-area houses and condos that resold in September had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months.

Phoenix Home Sales Rise – TheStreet.com – DQNews.com – 13 November 08

September sales of existing single-family houses in the Phoenix area jumped 85% above last year as prices fell and foreclosures rose to half of all resale transactions…Overall sales rose less dramatically because of annual declines in sales of newly built homes and resale condos…sales of existing single-family (detached) houses were still the second-lowest for a September in eight years. Single-family home sales have risen on a year-over-year basis for three consecutive months…The median price paid for all homes sold…was down 6% from…August and down 24.9% from…a year earlier. September’s median was 32.4% lower than the peak..in June 2006…The median paid per square foot for resale houses…down 35.2% from a year ago and down 42% from a peak…in June 2006. September’s figure was the lowest since…January 2004…About 51% of the Phoenix-area houses and condos that resold in September had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months.

Steadied by wartime economy, military towns around some bases sheltered from real estate bust – ChicagoTribune.com – Associated Press – Kristin M. Hall – 11 November 08

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Sometimes Tim Wells felt like the only man left on his street.

Thousands of soldiers were deployed out of Fort Campbell, Ky., just a few miles away, and homes in Wells’ subdivision were sitting empty. But a few months later the soldiers began to return and, one by one, the homes were quickly purchased…

While overall national home prices and sales are down, there are pockets in the U.S. doing well. Among them are military towns dominated by big bases, helped by steady wartime employment and by more moderate increases in values and less reckless lending than many boom areas saw during the bubble…

Even where prices are down, the bases still help provide plenty of people looking to buy. In the Florida Panhandle, where a saturated housing market saw sluggish sales last year, soldiers at Eglin Air Force Base said the downturn has made it easier for them to purchase homes in an area where demand is bolstered by Gulf Coast beaches…

In the case of Clarksville, the largest city near the sprawling Army post that straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky line, more than 30,000 soldiers assigned to the base rotate in and out regularly. Many come with families in tow or return from a deployment looking for a quiet place to call home in or around the city of about 113,000…

“From the time we listed it, we got an offer in eight days,”…Not bad, considering the National Association of Realtors estimates that nationally it will take nearly 10 months at the current rate of sales to work through the entire housing inventory…

…in Clarksville, the average sales prices for single family homes increased about 6 percent…in the second quarter of 2008 compared to a year ago, according to the Clarksville Association of Realtors…

Military communities haven’t totally avoided the problems in the housing market, and on average it’s taking longer for home sellers to find a buyer…

In Fayetteville, N.C., a city of about 168,000 outside of Fort Bragg, sale prices are down slightly this year for new homes but higher for the larger stock of existing homes. Second quarter figures were unavailable, but for the year through Sept. 30 the average price for an existing home was up 5.2 percent to $130,355 from a year earlier while new home prices were down 1.7 percent to $204,910…

While other markets tanked after homeowners took subprime loans that they couldn’t afford, active and retired members of the military can use private loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. More than 90 percent of VA loans don’t require down payments, said Judy Caden, director of the loan guarantee service…

The VA says home loans have increased about 34 percent over the last fiscal year. The VA also provides assistance to borrowers who go into default and face foreclosure with repayment and restructuring plans…