The Great Real Estate Bubble Quiz

You hear it asked on the radio, in the newspapers and on TV.

"Are we experiencing a value bubble in real estate and is it

ready to burst?"

Do you have an answer for that question? Do you have a guess?

Yes, I know the so called experts are lining up on both sides of the question. But what about you? You're living right in the middle of the action. You can judge what's happening in your city - your neighborhood.

Are property owners going to be safe or sorry?

To help you form an opinion of the current state of the real estate market we have created the...

GREAT REAL ESTATE BUBBLE QUIZ...

Everyone gets a passing grade and no homework is required, so put your thinking cap on and jump in...

True False Question

___ ___ Boston Real Estate values are up 90% in the last six years?

___ ___ San Francisco real estate values are up 90% in the last six years?

___ ___ Denver real estate values are up 90% in the last six years?

___ ___ The price of the average home in New York was $50,000 in 1975 and is $325,000 today..a gain of 550%?

___ ___ The average home price in Los Angeles was $50,000 in 1975. After a gain of 500% it sells today for $300,000?

___ ___ A 6,000 sq ft home in Greenwich, CT. worth $500,000 in 1987 sells today for $4-million?

___ ___ Fannie Mae, the largest buyer of mortgages in the US, issued a report warning that the probability of a housing bust has risen sharply in certain parts of the country.

I bet you scored 100% and earned your "Doctorate of Bubblology".

OK, why is Fannie Mae so glum? They point to loose (We would say CRAZY) lending practices, like interest only loans and the increase in loan approvals that are not backed by full documentation of the borrower's income and assets.

We imagine a borrower's conversation with a lender today goes something like this:

Borrower: "Will you give me a quarter of a million

dollar mortgage loan."
Lender: "Can you pay it back?"
Borrower: "Probably."
Lender: "Loan approved!"

Now you may be thinking that skyrocketing values are in an isolated number of big cities, right? That's true, but those cities are our major commerce centers. When things go bad there the negative effect ripples across the country.

Here's the bottom line: Our economy is always blowing bubbles. Some burst and some don't.

Only time will tell about this one.

Mark Walters is an investor-entrepreneur helping other investors from his Web pages at http://www.Lease-Option-Sub2.com

There is something emotionally charged about the buying and selling of New York high-end real estate. How else to explain the juggernaut of reality TV shows about high-end brokers?

After 30 years of marriage, Sharon and Michael Newman decided it was finally time to move from the Catskills to New York City.

On blocks near Kissena Park streets are quiet, houses are small, and the electricity that charges the atmosphere in downtown Flushing is nowhere to be found.

A five-story, seven-bedroom house in Brooklyn Heights has sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline.

Demand is so intense that there are waiting lists in some buildings, and a few landlords report that eager renters are even bidding up rents.

Sales at the very high end of the market barely missed a beat in the recession. But that prosperity hasn’t yet trickled down.

A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.

For a century, Roosevelt Island housed a grim penitentiary. It was demolished in the 1930s.

More borrowers are opting for fixed-rate loans with terms other than the standard 30 or 15 years, especially when it comes to refinancings.

Two more glass skyscrapers are added to a group of towers on the waterfront of Long Island City.

Insurance coverage for a co-op unit; when a tenant is ‘blacklisted’; a co-op is smaller than estimated.

The market for $500,000-to-$600,000 houses in Westchester has become especially active.

A shaky real estate market means more sellers are providing buyer concessions, from gift cards to help with paying property taxes.

Houses of worship are adaptable to residential and other uses as congregations dwindle.

The settlement reached last week over questionable mortgage practices by major American banks hardly cracks the iceberg that is the foreclosure mess.

Under the settlement, nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks.

A cold war-era satellite relay station is for sale in California after a Silicon Valley mogul gave up on plans to turn it into a weekend home.

How can I make my front porch more appealing to buyers?

Court hearings meant to protect New York homeowners from foreclosure are hopelessly slowed by endless paperwork and requests for additional information.

The Bay Area and Silicon Valley expect the windfall from the Facebook stock offering to make their in-demand region even hotter.

The house, designed by the architect Eric Fisher, looms over the street like a big industrial arm.

A town house in Dallas, a midcentury modern in Rhode Island and a Tudor in Denver.

Prices in some parts of the country are still off by as much as 25 percent from their 2007 peak.

Trinity Church is the largest landlord in Hudson Square and is part of the effort to rezone the area to residential from manufacturing.

Rising oil prices and a boom in shale exploration are leading companies to add office space in the Houston area, most notably Exxon Mobil.

Ms. de França is the president and chief executive of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, which focuses on new residential developments.

Meet the real estate broker’s interns: an ambitious group willing to do anything, earn nothing and wake up early on a Sunday to fluff the couch cushions at open houses.

A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.

Homes in Dallas, Rhode Island and Denver.

Compare the cost of renting and buying equivalent homes.

For recently divorced men, a new breed of decorators offers help navigating a strange new world.

Plants that light up the winter garden can be found at Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut, which has long been a favorite of gardening geeks.

A sister in need drew the painter Beverly McIver back home to North Carolina, unaware that a new beginning was in store for both of them.

A jewelry designer finds striking new objects for storage.

Timothy Sakamoto and Jochen Repolust are part of the small but growing niche making mobile apps focused on specific works of architecture.

To promote an auction of 20th- and 21st-century design, the interior designer Stephen Sills has created a preview exhibition in an apartment at the Apthorp.

Fishs Eddy now sells plates acquired from the archives of the now-defunct Syracuse China Corporation, many more than 100 years old.

The designer Russell Greenberg creates custom baby rattles with ends shaped like profiles of mom and dad.