Like the interactive map above and a twin map of Past Housing Price Corrections, the goal of this experimental wiki is to protect homebuyers from overpaying in overvalued housing markets across the United States. Citizen journalists, particularly homebuyers turned embedded real estate reporters and buyer agents, are invited to add newspaper articles, favorite blog posts, and most importantly examples of falling prices to document what is really going on behind housing statistics, like median sales prices, that may understate changes occurring in local housing markets (see partial list of cities in sidebar).
The wiki is meant to work with interactive maps, not replace them. Where possible, location-specific information (like homes selling for below assessed value, foreclosed properties, etc.) should be placed directly on an existing local map or a new map you create. Other information, like housing trends, price projections, monthly sales satistics, or quarterly research should be added to a general page or specific city on this wiki.
Why are we doing this? Because as U.S. News & World Report warned the Housing Bubble Correction Could Be Severe (6/13/06):
"...there are now 71 metropolitan areas – representing nearly 40% of all single-family homes – classified as 'extremely overvalued.' By comparison, only 1% were classified as such in the first quarter of 2004." A study of price corrections in 66 cities over the past two decades revealed that home prices "...tend to decline 17% on average before markets heal themselves. 'And the average duration of these adjustments is 3.5 years.'"
So far, we have created interactive maps for 40 of the 71 extremely overvalued housing markets, and 40 of the past 66 price corrections. Wiki pages have been started for all 13 markets that "face a 50% or greater risk" of housing price declines in the next two years according to PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.. We need your help to create more local maps and pages, and to answer the following questions:
To get an idea of the power of wikis to aggregate knowledge, that a look at Wikipedia's description of the United States housing bubble. Then submit your ideas to the Real Estate Bubble Map brainstorming page or request access to contribute to or moderate wiki pages and maps from your local market.
If you are new to wikis, take a few minutes now or later to visit these links to get an introduction to this powerful new tool for online collaboration: