Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

I

> The wastewater auction bidders will be subdivision developers. Tell 
> me again about that real estate bubble.
> 

Sure, be glad to:

 "In once hot markets like Boston are now down by more than 10 percent from 
their high point. The same goes for parts of the Phoenix area, where the 
number 
of homes on the market has more than doubled to 45,000 since last October."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/061029/6housing.htm


"National housing prices took a record fall in September as the pace of sales 
skidded for the sixth consecutive month. The median price for an existing 
home nationwide -- including single-family houses, condos and co-ops -- 
dropped 
2.2 percent"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/26/B
UGHQLVSTH1.DTL&type=business


"In the Phoenix metro area, inventory spiked from 10,748 on 7/20/05 to 51,557 
on 7/5/06 according <A HREF="http://www.ziprealty.com/";>ZipRealty</A> and <A 
HREF="http://bubbletracking.blogspot.com/2006/07/tracking-phoenixmaricopa-pinal.html";>Bubble
 Markets Tracking Inventory</A>. This 
represents an incredible increase of 379% year over year."

http://bubbletracking.blogspot.com/2006/07/tracking-phoenixmaricopa-pinal.html


" For example, a major home builder has told me that the share of unsold 
homes has topped 80 percent in some of the new subdivisions around Phoenix 
and Las 
Vegas, which he labeled the new "ghost towns" of the West. "    
    
    http://www.frbsf.org/news/speeches/2006/1009.html



> "There's a psychological umbrella of fear in Phoenix's housing market now," 
> said Tim Sullivan, a national housing analyst with San Diego-based Sullivan 
> Group. "Buyers are uncertain."
> 
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0618marketbottom0618.html


Since the date of the first blurb linked above, it is now reported that there 
are 54,000 unsold homes on the market in the Phonenix area - existing 
turn-key homes, not contracts or under development.  If you wanted to make 
sure you 
were getting the home in the Phoenix area and so wanted to take a look at 
every 
house for sale there, if you saw two houses an hour, eight hours a day, seven 
days a week, it would take you nearly 9 1/2 years to see them all.


Those who are in denial about the historic housing melt down under way remind 
me of the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail when Arthur cut off both 
arms and legs and the knight taunts, "It's only a flesh wound, I've had 
worse!"