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I am hearing from multiple sources that the large property company Drac, based in Mallorca in Spain, has filed for bankruptcy. The company had 600 or 700 million euros of debt at the time of its bankruptcy, depending upon the source. Drac had constructed more than 2,000 apartment flats on the Island and [...]

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Regional banks have not suffered the writedowns suffered by the major banks and investment banks due to their lack of derivatives exposure. But, loose lending standards are starting to bite. The LA Times has an excellent story out, which details how the community or regional banks will be affected by the housing slowdown. [...]

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The Mess That Greenspan Made has a blog entry with good visuals giving you a sense of how price appreciation, median prices and housing sales have changed over the past 4-5 years. I recommend it highly.

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According to the Telegraph, UK housing starts hit their lowest level in 63 years. With a lack of new business, how will Barrat’s and Taylor Wimpey survive? The Telegraph suggests that investors will save them, much as they have saved the banks who are also in need of capital.
“Housebuilders’ share prices surged [...]

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According to the Daily Mail, house prices need to fall by a lot more than the 8% to date in the UK in order to make them affordable for first time home buyers. The 63% number comes from the least affordable borough, Westminster in London, where prices would need to drop by £400,000 or [...]

That’s what Sir Howard Davies, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England (BoE), has to say.

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This morning, I posted a blog entry regarding KeyCorp’s wise decision to cut its dividend and to raise capital. They paid the price in the market today, sinking to a 17-year low below $12.00 a share and down 24% on the day.
Shares of KeyCorp sank to the lowest level in almost 17 years, following [...]

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Deutsche Bank has sold three New York skyscrapers back to the Macklowe group at a discount of 20-30% reports the Wall Street Journal. This could be a watershed moment in the U.S. commercial real estate (CRE)sector. CRE is a sector that is poised for a fall due to a slowing real economy.
“Deutsche Bank is cutting [...]

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The UK is in the throes of the worst of the mortgage meltdown. Financial shares are tumbling. Home builders face collapse. Many top names in British housing and banking have been caught out and are getting a deserved swift kick: Northern Rock, HSBC, HBOS, RBS, Barratts, Bradford & Bingley, Taylor Wimpey — the list [...]

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If you thought it was bad in the US, you need to read the British press. I subscribe to a number of RSS feeds for UK newspapers. I was rummaging tbough the Telegraph’s news feed and I was surprised at how gloomy the mood is in the UK. Things have gone pear-shaped in [...]