I came across this item in the Chicago Tribune business blog this morning and would love to hear what you think.
Robert Shiller, the Yale economist and half of the namesake of the famed home price index, used the word “bubble” this week to talk about August’s home price increases:
In an interview on Reuters Television, Shiller said home prices have shot up in recent months to levels that may be unsustainable, and in some parts of the country approach “bubble territory.” How could a market down and out for three years suddenly re-inflate into a bubble?
… In San Francisco or San Diego — bubble territory, by Shiller’s reckoning — prices have advanced firmly past the January level.
Basket-case markets Detroit and Miami, meantime, still clock in well below where they stood in January. As Mr. Bubble well knows, all real estate is local.
Here’s some more from Reuters’ interview with Shiller.