If a picture is worth a thousand words, today’s graph would suggest I don’t have to write a column this week. The graph was put together by the Reserve Bank’s head of economic analysis, Anthony Richards, and tracks the movement in house prices over the past 35 years compared with …
Confidence among US consumers fell to a 26-year low after employers fired workers and petrol prices surged, threatening the spending that accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy. The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 63.2 this month, the weakest level since 1982, when the …
For the first time since its reporting began, AFG, Australia’s largest mortgage broker, has shown that mortgage sales in WA fell every month for the first three months of the year, when compared to sales for the same three months of 2007. This sales contraction is unprecedented in AFG’s experience: …
SYDNEY house prices could fall by as much as 30 per cent in the next two years, economists say. They warned the pain will not be confined to Sydney’s struggling south and west, where prices have already dropped dramatically. “In Sydney, a typical house will cost 8.4 times a typical …
Consumer confidence has dropped to a 15-year low, failing to recover this month despite a pause on official interest rates, according to figures out today. » Consumer confidence now lowest in 15 years – The ABC, 9th April 2008.
House prices in Britain plunged last month by the worst figure since the financial crisis in the early 1990s. . . » Biggest house price plunge for 15 years – UK Times Online, 8th April 2008
AUSTRALIA’S overvalued housing markets and high levels of debt put it at risk of being hit by the financial tsunami swamping markets in the United States, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The IMF’s latest Global Financial Stability report, released overnight, estimates that losses to banks, borrowers, investors and other …
THE number of jobs advertised in major newspapers has fallen to its lowest level in more than 14 years, with back-to-back interest rate rises causing a decline in every state and territory, a survey shows. The ANZ job ads series shows that the total number of website and print advertisements …
International banks are scrambling to sell their holdings of Spanish mortgage debt at a steep discount, fearing that the country may be sliding into the worst economic downturn in its modern history. » Foreign banks flee Spanish property debt – The Telegraph, 5th April 2008.
THE risk of a correction in Australian house prices is high by international standards, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says. The IMF, which says Australian property is among the most overvalued in the developed world, has warned that about 25 per cent of the increase in house prices between 1997 …
Has the consumer finally ran out of money, or more precisely credit? The Age reports : MYER has admitted surprise at how quickly consumer sentiment has turned in March. Chairman Bill Wavish says comparable-store sales at the department store chain have actually gone backwards in the month as interest rate …
Home prices in 20 major U.S. metro areas have plunged a record 10.7% in the past year as prices continued to decelerate, Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday. The 20-city Case-Shiller home price index fell a record 2.4% from December to January, the 18th consecutive decline in prices. For 10 major …
Property Analyst Residex, has reported just over 1/3 of residential properties in Melbourne and Sydney has taken a dive, while over in Perth the number is closer to half. Some 34 per cent of Sydney homes declined in value, Melbourne 35 per cent and Perth 55 per cent. Outside of …
March 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. home foreclosure filings jumped 60 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in February as rates on adjustable mortgages rose and property owners were unable to sell or refinance amid falling prices. More than 223,000 properties were in some stage of default, or 1 in …
The first signs of mortgage stress caused by higher interest rates and the fall in the stock market are beginning to be seen in the more affluent suburbs of Sydney. Homeowners in suburbs such as Bondi, Chatswood and on the northern beaches are feeling the pinch as their net worth …
Australian consumer sentiment slumped to its lowest in more than 14 years in March as rising interest rates fanned worries over the economy, a survey showed on Wednesday. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index dropped 9.1% in March to 88.6, the lowest reading since September, 1993. That was the third …
March 11 (Bloomberg) — The U.K. housing slump deepened in February and is now the worst since the eve of the nation’s last recession in 1990, a survey of real-estate professionals showed. » U.K. Housing Market Slump Becomes Worst Since 1990 (Update2) – Bloomberg, 11th March 2008.
THE economy is headed for recession next year, with a 50 per cent plunge in share values and a double-digit drop in house prices – that’s what one analyst says. » Australia ‘on verge of recession’ – news.com.au, March 10th 2008
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers made their deepest cut in staffing in almost five years in February, the Labor Department reported Friday. There was a net loss of 63,000 jobs, which is the biggest decline since March 2003 and weaker than the revised 22,000 jobs lost in January. Economists had …
AUSTRALIA’S financial institutions have lent billions of dollars to home buyers who were not subject to basic credit checks and had a history of defaults, putting them in the “sub-prime” category that continues to terrorise world financial markets.The revelation, contained in research conducted by Dun & Bradstreet exclusively for The …
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