This lengthy update on the housing price collapse in Merced, written by the New York Times’ David Streitfeld, is worthwhile weekend reading. As with all good writing about the housing bubble and bust, the story, in the end, is pretty simple: In Merced, planners, developers, lenders and buyers were blinded by the bubble — [...]

We have all heard the tales of woe in the housing market. But for those who make their living in the world of buying and selling the aches and pains are even more acute.
“I sold a house a week ago for 30 thousand dollars,” Coldwell Banker Burnett realtor Faith McGown said. “That’s the lowest ever [...]

More than three-quarters of Irish real-estate agents don’t expect an improvement in housing-market activity over the next 12 months, NCB Stockbrokers reported, citing a survey.
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed expect the property market to remain the same, while 29 percent expect a decline, Dublin-based NCB said in a report today. Twenty-two percent expect an improvement.
“Tighter [...]

A total of 921 single-family homes were sold last month in San Joaquin,CA, up from 859 in May, according to figures from the latest Coldwell Banker Grupe-TrendGraphix monthly sales report, based on Multiple Listing Service data.
That is the highest monthly tally of closed escrow sales in the county back through January 2002, the oldest data [...]

Recent commentary from the US Federal Reserve has shown a shift from being concerned only about the risks to economic growth in the US to a more balanced outlook where the outlook for inflation is of equal concern for policymakers.
The question is will the Fed move to address the inflation outlook in the short-term given [...]

The mercury might be rising in Saskatchewan lately, but the housing market is showing distinct signs of cooling down, industry observers say.
Amid a booming economy, house prices in Saskatchewan grew about 32 per cent last year and are projected to grow another 20 per cent this year. That’s expected to be the biggest rise in [...]