Housing Bubble: "Spreading"
Yale Economics Professor Dr. Shiller expressed concern on Friday that the bubble is spreading:
“… the enthusiasm is infectious and it is starting to spread all over the place.”
How widespread is the housing bubble? Looking at the OFHEO House Price Index data released last week:
Click on graph for larger image.
NOTE: The OFHEO provides data for nine regions. Here are the states in each region. To make the graph more readable, I reduced the regions to six by combining NE/Mid Atlantic, West and East North Central, and West and East South Central. In each case the trends were very similar.
New England, Mid-Atlantic, Pacific and South Atlantic regions have been partying for some time. In the last couple of years, the Mountain region has joined the festivities and the South Atlantic region has become one of the party’s sparkplugs. Party On! Now it appears the stodgy regions are starting to perk up. I wouldn’t call it a full block party … yet. But this is a wild one.
I’m definitely not looking forward to the hangover.
UPDATE: Check out the TIME magazine cover!