Rants and Raves

There's been a lot published recently about the possibility of a housing bubble that will burst and leave people with negative equity in their homes. Can it happen? Has it happened before? The answer is yes and yes. Japan has had a slow housing market for the past seven or eight years so any economy is susceptible.

The economics department of National City Corporation, a large financial institution, did a study to try to identify in the 99 largest US markets where single family home valuations are at a premium or a discount. And good old Palm Beach County per the study is 26% overvalued per the benchmarks used. All of the markets that were more overvalued were in California. Also highly overvalued in Florida were the Miami Ft Lauderdale and Sarasota markets. Big markets like Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville were basically neutral. The most undervalued, Memphis and Salt Lake City.
You can read the entire study at http://www.nationalcity.com/economics