TOP
STORIES:
Housing
Is The Next Shoe To Drop In France - (www.businessinsider.com) Barnes, a British real estate group that
specializes in high-end properties in France and certain tony locations
elsewhere, based its study on data gleaned from lawyers (notaires) who engage
in real estate transactions. Prices of high-end homes in Paris dropped by
10-15%. For properties under €2 million, transactions screeched lower by 28%,
but prices remained stable. The study blames “the confluence of the euro
crisis, the elections, and taxation.” Harsh words. “Elections,” of course,
refers to the events last summer that elevated Socialist François Hollande to
President of France and that put the Socialist Party in control of parliament.
California
records its one millionth foreclosure - (www.ochousingnews.com) On November 26, 2012,
ForeclosureRadar recorded its millionth California foreclosure sale since
January 2007. While we acknowledge that foreclosures are painful and
unpleasant, this milestone also means a million underwater homeowners have
escaped a prison of
debt. I will take it a step further. I believe Foreclosures are essential to the economic recovery.
In addition, the millionth foreclosure sale points to steady strides toward
recovery in the housing market and provides an excellent launching pad for a
retrospective on the California foreclosure marketplace: Pre-2008 – The
California Housing Market Collapses, Foreclosure Market Changes Drastically: We
start with the peak of the California real estate bubble in 2007 and describe
how a normally functioning foreclosure market changed drastically due to record
numbers of homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. Foreclosure filings surged
in 2007 and 2008.
Vancouver
drops; Toronto faces Miami Problem - (www.macleans.ca)
A housing correction—or, possibly, a crash—is no longer coming. It’s
here. And you don’t have to own a tiny $500,000 condo in downtown Toronto or a
$1.3-million bungalow in Vancouver to get hurt. With few exceptions, the impact
will be indiscriminate as the euphoria of rising house prices is replaced by
fear. The only question now is how bad things will get. If the decline picks up
speed, as many believe it will, there could be a nasty snowball effect.
Construction jobs will be lost. Homeowners will end up underwater. Consumers
may stop spending. “I’m getting very nervous,” says David Madani, an economist
at Capital Economics, who has been predicting a
drop in housing prices of up to 25 per cent in Canada. “I know I’m a bear, but
the housing market itself has the potential to put us in a recession, let alone
what’s happening in Europe and the U.S.”
Fed Concerned About Overheated Markets Amid Record Bond-Buying
- (www.bloomberg.com) Federal Reserve officials are voicing increased concern that record-low interest rates are overheating markets
for assets from farmland to junk bonds, which could heighten risks when
they reverse their unprecedented bond purchases. Investors have been snapping
up riskier assets since the Fed boosted its bond buying to reduce long-term
borrowing costs after cutting its overnight rate target
close to zero in December 2008. Enthusiasm for speculative-grade bonds is at
unprecedented levels, driving a Credit Suisse index that tracks the
yield on more than 1,500 issues to a record-low 5.9 percent last week. Now, as
central bankers boost their stimulus with additional bond purchases, policy
makers from Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to
Kansas City Fed President Esther George are on the lookout for financial
distortions that may reverse abruptly when the Fed stops adding to its
portfolio and eventually shrinks it.
Abe Currency Policy Stokes Gaffe Risk as Amari Roils Yen -
(www.bloomberg.com) Japan’s newly installed government saw one
danger of verbal intervention in the foreign-exchange market this week, with a
Cabinet member’s remarks interpreted as indicating a shift in stance that he
later disowned. Economy Minister Akira Amari today told reporters in Tokyo that
the yen is still correcting from excessive appreciation, two days after
flagging the danger of the exchange rate getting too weak. His Jan. 15 remarks
stoked a two-day gain in the yen. Today, comments by Amari snapped the rise,
with the currency down 0.9 percent at 89.15 per dollar at 7:06 p.m. in Tokyo. The
Abe administration’s determination to end deflation through coordinated action
with the central bank has driven a 4.4 percent slide in the yen since it took
office Dec. 26. A cheaper yen aids the competitiveness of exporters from Panasonic Corp. (6752) to Nissan Motor Co. (7201)that
have labored under years of exchange-rate strength that saw the currency reach
a postwar high in 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment