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Chinese real estate behemoth Evergrande on Thursday filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan court. In its filing, Evergrande said it was seeking recognition of restructuring talks currently underway in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Chapter 15 shields non-U.S. companies that are undergoing restructurings from creditors that hope to sue them or tie up assets in the United States.

So which is it: Are people fleeing California and the Bay Area for cheaper housing, or swarming here for high-paying jobs? The answer is: both. A flurry of recent population reports have painted a confusing picture.

The risk of a real estate bubble occurring in several regions of Switzerland reached its highest level at the end of 2015 since the late 1980s, according to a report from UBS. The bank on Thursday said its Swiss Real Estate Bubble Index reached 1.41 points in the fourth quarter of last year, up from 1.34 in the third quarter and the highest rate in around 15 years. The Lake Geneva and Greater Zurich areas remain the most exposed regions in the country with the highest risk potential for a residential real estate bubble. Other exposed cities include Zug, Lucerne,...

Tom Friedman, please take note. China’s lack of political wrangling is not an asset, it’s what will drag it down. Friedman’s and other liberals’ utopian dream of a benevolent dictator has never worked. It fails because unrestrained dictators, with the best of intentions, make mistakes – often grandiose mistakes. And when they are criticized and challenged, they fight to hold on to power. And then they become the Stalins, the Pol Pots and the Kim Jong Ils of the world. And China’s single party autocracy has made a grandiose mistake. It has embarked on a building spree that according to...

The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world is Chinese real estate. The big question is how vulnerable is this market to a crash. One red flag is the vast number of vacant homes spread through China, by some estimates up to 64 million vacant homes. We've tracked down satellite photos of these unnerving places, based on a report from Forensic Asia Limited. They call it a clear sign of a bubble: "There’s city after city full of empty streets and vast government buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations. Click here to see the ghost towns

The Committee to Reinflate the Bubble — the National Association of Realtors, the builders’ lobby, and the rest of the gang committed to using government policy to artificially increase real estate prices, enriching themselves while undermining the economy and imperiling the nation — is now the Committee to Increase the Deficit. The Simpson-Bowles panel has released its deficit-reduction report, and, to nobody’s great surprise, the proposal to reduce bubblicious tax subsidies for homeowners has drawn a pledge of resistance from the most self-interested parties. Reports the WSJ: Joe Stanton, chief lobbyist for the National Association of Home Builders, said his...

New research suggests that when a home’s value falls below 75 percent of the amount owed on the mortgage, the owner starts to think hard about walking away, even if he or she has the money to keep paying. In a situation without precedent in the modern era, millions of Americans are in this bleak position. Whether, or how, to help them is one of the biggest questions the Obama administration confronts as it seeks a housing policy that would contribute to the economic recovery. “We haven’t yet found a way of dealing with this that would, we think, be...

November 27, 2009 Dubai in Deep Water As Ripples From Debt Crisis Spread Patrick Hosking and David Robertson Work has been halted on the artificial islands Fears of a dangerous new phase in the economic crisis swept around the globe yesterday as traders responded to the shock announcement that a debt-laden Dubai state corporation was unable to meet its interest bill. Shares plunged, weak currencies were battered and more than £14 billion was wiped from the value of British banks on fears that they would be left nursing new losses. Nervous traders transferred the focus of their anxieties from the...

I received this from friend who is former Goldman Sachs partner. Good read. BN ________________________________ FYI, For those of you who can stomach this, here you go. Here are some personal insights from an attendee (not me) at ULI Meeting in San Francisco November 2009 ===================== "This week I attended the Urban Land fall conference. ULI is the top real estate industry group in the world. All the most senior people in the industry. 1. Not one expert was willing to predict what things will look like in 3 years other than they think it will be better 2. One...

General Growth Properties, owner of premier malls such as Tysons Galleria in McLean, filed the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday, but analysts say the move is not a sign of retail Armageddon. General Growth, like many homeowners, paid top dollar in a rush to buy properties earlier in the decade and now finds itself awash in debt with its asset values shrinking.

Looking back three years ago, it is hard to fathom how much has changed from the frenzied pace of development then going forward. Land and housing prices were still rising, ever-larger development projects were being launched, and growth debates were raging across Southern California. That’s all gone now. As key real estate players suddenly find themselves without jobs, as more developers file bankruptcy, and more projects bite the dust, the depth of this “downturn” is sinking in. Many, of course, have “been through this before.” By that they mean, they’ve weathered the cyclical postwar busts that have intermittently interrupted the...

The LA Times came out Saturday with a widely-noticed article on Beijing real estate, which features my friend Jack Rodman. Jack, who runs a firm called Global Distressed Solutions, is a bad-loan and distressed real-estate expert who has spent the last several years in China, and somehow has the energy to poke around among all the spectacular buildings in Beijing and other cities, worm his way in, and see if behind the beautiful façades there is actually some semblance of economic viability. - - - - - C L I P - - - - - Any conversation about Chinese...

Inside China: A Sculptor's View I have been exchanging emails with Bill Hopen, a sculptor who frequently travels to China, often for months at a time. Bill writes .... I've been to China a lot Mish, spent many months at a time there for the last eight years. China is already in a massive overcapacity real estate bubble. They are building three apartments for everyone that is lived in. Most apartments are empty and those that are rented do not come close to paying the interest on the loan. There are huge department stores with products loaded on the shelves...

Widely watched private index shows housing prices falling by record annual amount in November NEW YORK (AP) -- A closely watched index shows home prices dropped by the sharpest annual rate on record in November. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday tumbled by a record 18.2 percent from November 2007, the largest decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.1 percent, tied with October for the biggest drop in its 21-year history. Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 23 straight months. Prices are at levels not seen since February 2004. Prices in the...

LAS VEGAS There are 6 million empty homes in the United States. Or 6.2 million, to be slightly more precise. Empty houses are normal to some extent -- part of the usual friction of building, selling, renting. But ask the people who study the numbers, and who understand the "overhang" in housing inventory, and they'll tell you: This country has about a million homes too many. The solution, local executives say, will come not from Washington policymakers but from the market itself. When there are too many houses, builders stop building them. That has already happened, and many Vegas home...

The Psychology of Ben Bernanke: The Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve. Was he Talking About the current Great Depression that is Sprouting Under his Watch? Lessons From the Great Depression: Part XIII. The Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week once again mentioned that the Federal Reserve was “strongly committed” to financial stability and is considering options like keeping the lending facilities open to primary dealers. In short, they are going to continue to bailout banks and Wall Street firms while Americans get the shaft. This is an important statement and the futures markets are...

I guess the moral of the story is: passing the buck causes big problems.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Earlier this year, a Wisconsin couple won a judgment against Chevy Chase Bank that said the bank deceived them over the terms of their mortgage. The judge ordered Chevy Chase to rescind the loan and certified the lawsuit as class-action, which could potentially release thousands of other borrowers who felt misled. Current Mortgage Rates Type Overall avgs 30 yr fixed mtg 6.24% 15 yr fixed mtg 5.89% 30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 7.08% 5/1 ARM 6.11% 5/1 jumbo ARM 6.57% Find personalized rates: Video More video Tim Hughes of the IG Index joins CNN to talk...

Hundreds of foreclosures in Denver are on hold because of a massive backlog in the Clerk and Recorder's Office, putting lenders in a "precarious position" and forcing the city to hire more help. On Wednesday, 661 foreclosure packets, which are supposed to be recorded within 10 days, were more than two weeks past due, according to an internal report obtained by the Rocky Mountain News. The problem is so bad that employees are working weekends to catch up and fielding urgent pleas from law firms handling foreclosures. "I'm desperate!" starts off one e-mail to the clerk and recorder. "I have...

PHOENIX — Until recently, this fast-growing area was a paradise on earth for home builders. Fulton Homes’ developments, for example, were so popular last year that it was able to raise prices on its new homes by $1,000 to $10,000 almost every week. “People were standing in line for lotteries,” recalled Douglas S. Fulton, president of the company, one of the largest private builders in the Phoenix area. And they were “camping overnight begging to be the next number in the next lot in the next house.” No more. Today, it is the company’s sales agents that do most of...