What is this? A bunch of charlatans. Tell them to read FR, there is no bubble.
Not a big issue for me... I'm in Ohio, we didn't "bubble" much. No one wants to come here, and I'm ok with that!
Many parts of the country didn't experience the same dramatic rise in RE prices that other areas have had over the last 4-5 years.
For example,today,it's difficult to find a condo or co-op in Manhattan (below 95th Street,at least) for less than $1,000/square foot.Also,the house a couple of doors down from where I grew up in suburban Boston (and is very similar to that house) is on the market at this very moment for $1.1 million.
These areas,the Northeast,south Florida,Nevada,California,etc are at at least some risk of a bubble at least partially because the "median household income/median house price" ratio is so out of whack with those in,say,Ohio today...and in those very areas just a few years ago.
In Northern Virginia (Fairfax, Arlington Counties and City of Alexandria) tax assessments released in January produced a real sticker shock impact. In Fairfax County the average assessment increase was $80K. In many zip codes the average was over $100K. Last weekend under beautiful sunny skies the 'peak real estate season' opened and it laid an early Easter egg. I personally went to five open houses on Sunday afternoon in a very desirable area near Mt. Vernon. The open houses weren't drawing flies. One house had exactly two viewers for the entire duration. This was no fluke. I spoke at length to a very successful agent and investor (he sold $26M in 05) and his company reported the same lack of interest across the NOVA area. His contacts with realtor's in other companies reported a uniformly dismal weekend. The belief is that the recent tax assessments have bumped prices to a point where in conjunction with the Fed increasing the base rate another 1/4% to a stalling point the market. Effectively the combination of the last five years of price increases and the increase in interest rates has priced a lot of people out of the market.out of the market: Houses went up 20% last year in this area, and interest rates went up 20% (from 5 1/2 to 6 1/2%) - combined that's a 44% increase in monthly payment. Effectively the combination of prices and mortgage rates have created an unsustainable market. The last time this happened 15 years or so ago led to modest actual price declines and a flat market and price structure for several years before the current boom started with the flood of new mortgage instruments.