Dive Brief:

• Robert J. Shiller, co-creator of the Case/Shiller Index of home prices in the U.S. says price increases are near, but not at, a level seen before the last bubble burst.
• The 16-month price-change rate for the period ending in July was 18.4% compared with 22.7% in July 2004.
• A bubble depends on psychology and a belief that prices cannot fall, too, and it does not appear from a survey of new homeowners in four cities that is happening.

Dive Insight:

In an op-ed piece in The New York Times, Shiller does not come across as very confident that the country won't slip into a bubble mentality, but the numbers do not shows it happening now. Shiller and his co-founder, Professor Karl Case of Wellesley College do an annual survey of recent home buyers in Boston, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Shiller draws his conclusions from the 368 responses they got to 2,000 questionnaires.