Remember when your local realtor told you that house prices never fall. Well, housing prices fell in nearly every major U.S. market in November. Boston prices fall back dramatically; down 5 percent for the 12 months through November. Detroit was little better, off 4.5 percent. Of 20 major cities tracked, all but three showed declines in November and seven recorded 12-month losses.
It is enough to make you cry.
Does this sound like a familiar story? A central bank lowers interest rates, cheap money fuels a housing bubble, higher house prices leads to equity withdrawal which feeds inflation. Then the central bank panics, raises interest rates and suddenly no one wants to take out mortgages any more.
That sad old yarn is playing out in the UK. The number of mortgages granted in the UK slumped to a six-year low last month. Overall, the number of mortgages approved fell to 123,518 from 209,669 the previous month. That figure had also fallen from the 140,866 loans that were approved the previous December.
Despite the higher rates, the housing bubble is still evident in the average value of a mortgage , which rose 9 per cent to £146,400 from levels a year ago.
Where do we go from here? Er, down maybe?
Say hello to the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-meter. It records the number of loose lending institutions that have croaked since December 2006. As of today, 16 lenders have hit the wall. Check out the ailing list. Grim stuff.
Expect the Implode-O-meter to climb remorselessly. The great and oh so late housing crash of 2007 has finally come to town.
Oh misery, misery when will the housing market recover?
Sales of existing homes plunged again in December. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales were down 0.8 percent last month. For the year, sales fell by 8.4 percent, the biggest annual decline since 1982.
What happened to the once high-flying housing market. For five straight years, prices increased at record levels. Today, the market is slipping into the abyss.
It is going to get worse, I tell ya, much worse.
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