by admin on November 2, 2008
“In 2008 to date, the adjustment of the Spanish economy that began last year has continued intensifying in a climate of heightened international financial instability which has come to a head in October,” the Bank of Spain said. The Spanish economy, the fifth-biggest in the European Union, expanded by 3.7 percent
The Bank of Spain’s forecast bears out widespread expectations that the once fast-growing economy is now flirting with recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of falling output.
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by admin on October 29, 2008
”I saw fear take over,” said Timur Usmanov, a real estate agent for Dubai-based Monshaat Properties, about investors who recently tried to flee the market just two or three years after diving in. “There are too many sellers and not enough buyers. …
“People are saying it’s like a tsunami that will attack the country in a few months,” said one broker, who sells property for a major Dubai developer and spoke only on condition her name not be used because she did not want to hurt her business.
Morgan Stanley angered some developers in August with a prediction that Dubai property prices would likely fall by 10 percent after years of unrelenting growth, starting in 2009.
Richard Rodriguez, the former CEO of the Dubai division of Emaar Properties, the builder of the world’s tallest building and one of Dubai’s biggest developers, said too many builders in the emirate have focused on return-seeking investors — rather than people looking for homes to live in.
ap.google.com
by admin on October 26, 2008
It was Oct. 17, just four days after JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, agreed to take a $25 billion capital injection courtesy of the United States government, when a JPMorgan employee asked that question.
The JPMorgan executive who was moderating the employee conference call didn’t hesitate to answer a question that was pretty politically sensitive given the events of the previous few weeks.
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by admin on October 25, 2008
Lend Lease Communities LLC of Denver said Friday that it may quit as developer of the proposed Lowry Range mixed-use real estate development east of Aurora by the end of this year, if it can’t find a sustainable water source for the project at a “reasonable cost,” Lend Lease said on Friday.
The developer submitted a letter to the Colorado State Land Board on Friday, saying it intends to terminate its development agreement on Dec. 31 of this year.
In preparation for its work at the Lowry Range development, Pure Cycle was to build a $400 million pipeline from the Arkansas River Valley to the Denver area to transport as much as 40,000 acre-feet of water a year.
bizjournals.com
by admin on October 25, 2008
This was Alan Greenspan’s tragic mistake, not that the former Fed chief will acknowledge it. Testifying before Congress yesterday, Mr. Greenspan pinned the crisis on mortgage securitizers, risk modelers and lending institutions, thus contributing to the Washington narrative that government had little to do with it. The Fed’s monetary policy apparently gets a pass.
The media and Members of Congress will use Mr. Greenspan’s testimony to impugn the very free market principles that the former Ayn Rand protégé has spent his life promoting.
online.wsj.com
by admin on October 25, 2008
Home prices in August were down 5.9 per cent from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 1991 when the Federal Housing Finance Agency data starts.
Foreclosures increased 71 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac, which sells foreclosure data.
business.smh.com.au
by admin on October 25, 2008
China’s government is racing to make sure one of the world’s biggest housing booms doesn’t turn into a bust.
How the swoon in housing plays out in coming months may largely determine how severe the nation’s economic slowdown during the global financial crisis will be — and how acute the world-wide repercussions of the slump will be, as China’s demand for construction materials declines.
But sales of new housing in China have plummeted in recent months as buyers have been spooked by a deteriorating economy and weakening prices.
Because housing drives demand for so many products, the impact of the housing slowdown is being felt world-wide from weaker Chinese demand for commodities.
As construction has slowed in recent months, so has China’s steel production: Output was down 5.5% in September from a year earlier.
Just a year ago, enthusiasm for housing knew few bounds, as people all around China lined up outside new housing developments for the first chance to buy.
Average nationwide housing prices have fallen month-on-month in both August and September, and growth in new construction is slowing sharply as developers, squeezed for cash, have to cut back.
Nobody wants to sell, and nobody wants to buy,” says William Xin, chief financial officer of China Housing & Land Development Inc., a developer in the western city of Xi’an.
online.wsj.com
by admin on October 24, 2008
The government announced measures to head off a property market crash late Wednesday after figures released this week showed third quarter domestic product growth slowed to nine percent, the lowest since mid-2003.
Propping up the property market, which accounts for 10 percent of China’s gross domestic product, was crucial, analysts agreed.
This week’s economic data provided the most powerful indication yet that even China’s so-far invincible economy was not insulated from the global downturn, especially as fears of recession grow in the United States and Europe — key markets for Chinese manufactured goods.
Real estate prices in 70 major Chinese cities fell 0.1 percent in August from July, the first month-on-month price decline since China began releasing the data in July 2005
au.biz.yahoo.com
by admin on October 23, 2008
In a host of countries, home price gains went well beyond the levels you’d expect based on those variables, and the IMF study looks at this “house price gap” as one indicator of just how bubbly each country’s housing market became.
Loungani says that based on the IMF’s review of housing cycles going back several decades, the average country sees home prices escalate by 45 percent during booms (which last, on average, about 6 years), and then sees prices decline about 25 percent during busts, which last an average of four years.
IMF economists looked at how recessions played out across a host of countries, and one of the things they explored was the way in which a housing bust tended to exacerbate an economic downturn, particularly when it comes to unemployment.
Simply put, during recessions that coincide with housing downturn, many more people tend to find themselves without a job.
newsweek.com
by admin on October 20, 2008
Financial advisers say they are fielding many more calls than usual from clients asking which investments to tap into to help their sons and daughters and what the tax implications will be. Mortgage brokers, too, are spending hours talking to their clients’ relatives about lending money and becoming guarantors.
Right now, Mr. Weinstein said, he is advising five clients who are in contract to buy apartments with help from families, and he says half of his upcoming deals involve buyers getting money from relatives.
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