re: Drudge linked, Economist on housing bubble: We never left the bubble, its bubble inception

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Which is why I wonder who are buying all of these homes?

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As was said earlier, a LOT of it is pressure from massive foreign buying of assets in the US/Canada. Mostly Chinese. Vancouver is an extreme example of this right now and is absolutely out of control. The city is considering (or has already) putting severe restrictions on foreign purchases of property because of the extreme inflation of prices. Homes in VC that were worth $200k 15 years ago were going for $1.5M last year and $1.7M this year. It's that kind of an increase.

The same is happening in a lot of cities, especially ones that restrict development (or have geographical restrictions) such as San Fran, LA, Miami, Austin, etc. Even in Houston it's gotten ridiculous recently. These homes are simply not worth even close to what they are being sold at, and there are too many luxury homes and not enough entry level.

If we hit any kind of bump in the market, it's going to get ugly, AGAIN.