, Columnist
Be on Guard Against Bubble Sightings
A surge in the number of super-expensive houses for sale doesn't tell us anything about the residential real-estate market.
Cozy, if you like living in an office complex.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Is there is a “worrisome pileup of $100 million homes,” as a hyperventilating headline in a New York Times article declared last week? The story was accompanied by the usual warnings about bubbles, parallels to the credit crisis and an ominous observation that “the last time a sudden pop in $100 million-plus listings occurred was in 2007 and 2008, just before the housing crash.”
The headline did its job. The column made the rounds on social media, television and blogs. Given all the chatter it generated, it is worth looking at some of the data points to see if we can discern any deeper meaning.