Housing

Sweden has been one of the countries to have best weathered the economic crisis. Despite a hiccup in its domestic economy and the extra deflationary impulse from souring loans to the Baltics in 2009, the Swedish economy has been remarkably…

Nationalised Dutch lender SNS Reaal, the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands has recently been nationalised despite a reported 13 percent Tier 1 capital level in the most recent round of banking stress tests in Europe. Clearly, the…

Moody's Investor Service released the following note in conjunction with a ratings action it took on Canadian banks today.

The key to Spain's turning the corner as 2013 begins is the housing market. This takes on increasing importance given the reprieve in crisis interest rates. House prices are still falling and the economy is contracting despite the…

The Dutch press is reporting that Willem Buiter, the Dutch-born Chief Economist of Citigroup, believes that we are going to witness a slew of writedowns in the Netherlands unless the Dutch can right the economy and stop the fall in house…

On Christmas Eve, the Wall Street Journal had two interesting articles on the credit situation in the U.S., one from the banks' perspective and one from the households' perspective. In general, the data were positive but I believe the…

The last time I reported on the Spanish housing market in August, we were in the midst of a bank deposit run caused by the redenomination risk. This was pre-OMT. At the time, we saw an acceleration in the house price declines. House prices…

When David Stevens left his position in the Obama Administration in 2011 as the head of the Federal Housing Administration to go to head the Mortgage Bankers Association, the chief lobbyist for the industry he once regulated, I posted on…

Moody's released the following announcement on Friday in connection with a review it is now conducting regarding the Canadian banking sector. Moody's Investors Service has placed the long-term ratings of six Canadian banks (including the…

The interesting thing about the chart below is that the maximum rate of property price increases in the Netherlands was just after the euro was introduced when year-on-year prices rose a staggering 20%. Since that time the trend has been…