Mortgage meldown in Britain

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 is

The UK is even gloomier than the US

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 a hurry.

Spain panicked over possible rate hikes

I have been reading the Spanish press a lot recently to see what is happening in the Spanish property market. On the one hand, the country is transfixed over a strike by truck drivers (link in Spanish) that has left Spain’s major cities without adequate food supplies. Nevertheless, on the other hand, over the past

F.H.A. Faces $4.6 Billion in Losses

So the Federal Housing Administration is the latest victim of the housing bust. If they weren’t a government agency, they might actually be bust. The projected loss is the highest in the home loan program since 2004, and officials said the F.H.A. had to withdraw $4.6 billion from its $21 billion capital reserve fund in

Which homebuilder will go bankrupt next?

When was the last time you heard of a major U.S. home builder going bankrupt? It’s been quite a while. Even though my focus right now is firmly fixed on financial institutions and mortgage lenders, I have a watchful eye on home builders. After all, I believe that the next leg down in the housing

Wave of regional bank write-offs?

I have posted a few times on the problem surrounding an imminent writedown wave for commercial real estate (CRE) and construction loans in the US. A few days back, I had intended to post more about regionals. The Wall Street Journal had a good article about this problem, singling out Wachovia and Bank of America

Mortgage crisis victims: First Ed McMahon, now Evander Holyfield

Unfortunately this IS the real deal, Evander Holyfield — you’re losing your house. HousingWire is reporting that Evander Holyfield has become the second major celebrity to succumb to buckling home prices and financial difficulty this week. Earlier in the week it was the aged Ed McMahon of Publisher’s Clearinghouse and Tonight show fame. Now, it’s

National City is on probation

Canada: Boom in progress

Canada has experienced a housing boom, not unlike many other English-speaking countries globally. According to the Globe and Mail, housing prices have doubled there nationally in the last 10 years. So, what are the prospects for Canadian housing and for the Canadian economy going forward? The prospects for Canada certainly are better than in the

Household wealth plummets in Q1 2008

Calculated Risk is reporting a huge decline in household wealth due to the deflating housing bubble. “The Fed released the Q1 2008 Flow of Funds report today: Flow of Funds. The Fed report shows that household real estate assets decreased from $20.046 trillion in Q4 to $19.717 trillion in Q1 2008. That is a decline

UK house prices fall most in 15 years

The Telegraph is reporting that “house prices are now suffering their sharpest annual drop in 15 years, according to the latest survey from Halifax.” See story. Related storiesHouse prices: Should the Government intervene?, Telegraph, 05 Jun 2008UK faces worst slump since the 90s recession, Telegraph, 05 Jun 2008House prices: Growing risk of a more than

Chart of the day: Case-Shiller 2005

Question: Could one see a bubble in housing back in 2005 when house prices were still rising? Well, to answer that question, I took the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 10 Index and mapped it the rate of inflation. See, Robert Shiller, one of the Case-Shiller index authors, said in his seminal book Irrational Exuberance that house prices