Boston “Bubble Hour” to discuss February housing statistics

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) will announce their official February housing statistics tomorrow, Thursday March 23, 2006; and once again, a number of leading bubble bloggers in Boston invite you chat about them as soon as they are released and press coverage unfolds.

Would you believe the first “Bubble Hour” generated 36 pages of content including over a dozen graphs submitted by a number of bloggers and savvy consumers?   If you missed that chat, the transcript and graphs of January 2006 housing statistics are accessible online but comments or questions should be posted below. 

Better yet, why not participate in our second Bubble Hour(WILL REOPEN CHAT BETWEEN 9PM AND 10PM THIS EVENING.)  Please let us know if you’d prefer to chat online or meet offline by emailing us.  Either way, you can enrich the discussion by posting your question below, or submitting them privately beforehand.  Graphs are our specialty so let us know if there is any data you’d like to see presently visually.  As before, chat participants with different perspectives — both geographically and with respect to their opinion about the housing bubble — are earnestly sought.  Homebuyers, sellers, professionals, and press are all welcome.

We’d be particularly delighted if someone from MAR joined us to answer questions directly, too.  After (1) single family home sales fell to their lowest volume in ten years during January and (2) year-over-year prices fell for the first time in 115 months, my guess is that MAR will say that housing rebounded in February 2006.  More evidence of a “soft landing,” industry spin, or a mild winter?  We want to hear your opinion.

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Chat about Jan. 2006 home sales in Boston / Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors is expected to post January sales statistics to their web site sometime around noon today.  To help make sense of them, The Real Estate Cafe is hosting four chats through the day which the public can join as a guest (if you are unable to see any graphics when you enter the chat room, try clicking on the link below): 

Bubble Hour #1:  Noon to 1pm

Transcript & graphs since 7:20am now online.

Bubble Hour #2:  6:30 to 7:30pm

If there is interest, we’ll do this one in person at Borders Bookstore Cafe @ CambridgeSide Galleria tonight or maybe tomorrow.  Please RSVP in advance so we can make that decision.

Bubble Hour #3:  8:00pm to 9pm

We anticipate the largest number of participants for this Bubble Hour, including a special guest from one of that state registry of deeds who will share some statistics for February, three weeks ahead of the Mass. Association of Realtors release their own.

Bubble Hour #4:  11pm to midnight

We have a number of people who house hunt just before heading to bed so to accommodate them, we’ll host one more bubble hour today

We’ve already begun posting some content on line, and invite your comments and questions here or in the chat room.  One note of caution:  overall market statistics, like those being released today by the Mass. Association of Realtors, are often too broad to translate into meaningful information at the local level. That’s one of the reasons chat participants with different perspectives — both geographically and with respect to their opinion about the housing bubble — are welcome.  (As always, you can also call our reader line to record your own sound bite:  617-876-2117 for potential use in a future podcast.)

Regional round tables discuss housing bubbles online & off

This morning, we learned that one of the leading real estate blogs in the country, Curbed.com, has been hosting a series of monthly real estate round tables to discuss the state of the housing market in New York City.  The Real Estate Cafe and other leading bubble bloggers in Boston began a similar series of collaborative chats 12 days ago, and we were thrilled that our first "Bubble Hour" generated 36 pages of content including over a dozen graphs.  Please let us know if you’d like to participate in the next Bubble Hour, and whether you would prefer to participate in an online chat or a offline meeting by emailing RECafe@mac.com. The Massachusetts Association of Realtors will announce their official February housing report on March 23, 2006.

Until then, you can help shape the content of the next Bubble Hour by posting your question below, or recording a message on our blog reader line (617-876-2117) for future use in our real estate podcast. We’re eager to add more content to our real estate bubble "audio time capsule."  Field reports and market observations from home buyers and sellers in Greater Boston and across Massachusetts are most welcome.

Coming soon: Real Estate Bubble Reality Tours?

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Looking for our latest research on bubble trends?  We’re getting ready to rollout our first experiments with bubble related maps, and need your help.  Are there  questions you’d like answered or data presented to help you make sense of the changing housing market?  If you’re thinking of buying a home, would you be interested in getting beyond graphs and statistics to participate in a Real Estate Bubble Reality Tour?  If so, would you prefer to do that (1) on your own "virtually" using interactive maps, (2) your own driving tour, or (3) a small group tour of different towns with other househunters?

In the meantime, you can begin your own tour online by visiting fellow bubble  bloggers:

MassHouseMarket some excellent graphs on the relationship between housing inventory and housing prices, and

BostonBubble.com has a rolling list of local bubble related stories, as well as their analysis of April housing statistics.  Thanks for their permission to reprint their graph of Median Price changes, February 2004 – April 2006 above, and please visit their blog for more detail and reader forums.

‘Lizard Brains & bubble behaviour: 2005 vs 2006

Having just read that bloggers and Business Week are writing about lizard brains, how could we resist the opportunity to host the next bubble hour at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge?  Should we wait for Monday April 17, 2006 the one year anniversary of The Real Estate Cafe blog post about lizard brain behaviour and the real estate bubble.  Or does it make more sense to meet this Monday, April 3rd after the National Association of Realtors releases their pending sales index or just wait till Tuesday, April 25 when the Massachusetts Association of Realtors released official statistics for the preceeding month, March 2006?

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