Housing

I started tracking an odd statistic that I made up in the aftermath of the last recession called the 'Mortgage to Growth Gap' (MGG). At the time, a lot of pundits I respected where saying that American consumers were spending right through…

Wikipedia has a great entry on the subprime housing bubble for anyone who wants a primer on the bubble and a subprime housing bubble timeline. Follow the link here. This a pretty comprehensive entry with some pretty heady stuff and a lot…

The blogger Mish is on to the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) downturn. His latest blog entry,WSJ Report: Less Shopping = Fewer Malls, shows that both the WSJ and the FT are reporting a fall in CRE prices.The Financial Times is reporting a…

As you know, I am looking at the UK and Spain as the epicenter for the next leg down in the housing bubble. Spain suffered massive overbuilding while the UK had a huge run-up in prices.The Blogger at UK Bubble is on to something in her…

The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) bust is coming to an office building near you. The latest story? The GM building in NY was flogged off with some other properties at the peak of the bubble for a cool $3.6 to $3.9 billion. Now, the…

Update: A more thorough analysis of the Spanish economy is at my post Outlook for Spain: Recession.The leading Spanish Newspaper ABC is reporting that furniture sales are down 20% nationally for the first three months of 2008 due to the…

The Telegraph reported Friday that sales in the Spanish property market have plunged and many British vaction home investors will find themselves under water."In the clearest sign yet that the boom is over, the developers said the combined…

First the banks won't refinance, then they won't restructure mortgages, now they're pulling out all stops in this mortgage mess. They are pulling existing home equity lines of credit. That's right, in a feeble attempt to save their sorry…

A Bloomberg article today highlight's the Commercial real estate sector (CRE) as the next leg down in the U.S. property bubble. The article states:With 312,000 private-sector jobs lost in the last four months, foreclosure rates more than…

That's the title of a UK Telegraph article on a report showing that UK repossession orders have increased to levels not seen since the housing bust of the early 1990s. According to this morning's BBC 5 Live program, "Wake Up To Money," the…