Here’s what a housing bubble looks like. Housing prices. Red is Arizona, green is Nevada, blue is us here in New Mexico. The three states track together since the 1970s (off to the left of what’s displayed in this graph). Prices in Arizona and Nevada shoot up beginning around 2004, then collapse pretty dramatically. Click through for larger image. Data from St. Louis Fed.
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Apparently TX had an even smaller bubble — because they had many restrictions on speculative financial products. Check the Dallas Fed.
Nevada and Arizona seem like odd places for housing prices to start increasing rapidly. Any speculation on why there were increases in those states?
Speculation is the key word here. Money was cheap and plentiful to borrow, and investors- many from California – turned their eyes to “undervalued” properties in Nevada and Arizona and to a lesser degree NM. The environment produced a wave of profitable flips as well as mini mansion subdivisions, but as in any ponzi scheme, the only people who made the big bucks were at the top of the pyramid… Along with all the enablers at the banks and mortgage companies who turned a blind eye to who was truly qualified, as long as they got their fees.