Forecasts of doom, boom
From Times staff and wire reports
Joining the legions trying to call the real estate market, researchers at Chapman University warn that Orange County is in the midst of a “housing-price bubble” that is rapidly nearing its end.
They expect local home prices to rise this year at their slowest pace in nine years and then to begin slowly dropping in 2006 as mortgage rates rise.
Meanwhile, top officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which regulates national banks, dismissed fears that rising home prices nationwide reflect a speculative bubble ready to burst.
FDIC officials rejected the notion that the recent rise in housing prices is a speculative fluke, concluding that most booming U.S. housing markets are sustained by strong growth in jobs.
