Both the number of houses being put up for sale and those being sold dropped in July, data from the monthly Agency Express property activity index has shown. Agency Express blames this on the government’s recently announced spending cuts as potential buyers have revised their budgets and are putting their moving plans temporarily on hold. For the second consecutive month, the number of monthly house sales has fallen. In July, it dropped by 2.9 per cent compared to June. This was the lowest level since January 2010.

Setting up the ability/obligation to work forever. Thiw will enable anyone who bought their home with a big mortgage post 2000 to work a lot longer to pay it off. This also enables the inevitable creation of the 50 year mortgage, coming to a cinema near you some time in the future, to find yet more leverage from the younger generation to keep the whole pyramid scheme going.

George Osborne reversed the measure in the June Budget saying he wanted to help small businesses operating in the tourism industry. However, the Treasury has now said it intends to make it much tougher for home owners to qualify for the breaks. It means more than a quarter of the 65,000 home owners offering holiday lets in Britain will no longer be eligible for the tax benefits from 2011-2012, according to a consultation document published by the Treasury.

The latest rally in UK house prices is over. But what happens next? Will we see a long slow grind back to fair value? Or are we heading for a second crash?

''Nearly 100,000 new homes must be built every year just to provide housing for immigrants, ministers disclosed yesterday. Four out of every ten new houses or flats built to cope with the rising population will go to a migrant, they said. Over a 25-year period, immigrants will require 2.5million extra homes unless the Government meets its pledges to bring about a major reduction in numbers arriv­ing to live in Britain.''

The rating agency Standard & Poor's said banks are at risk of a vicious circle as sovereign debt fears and financial stress feed off each other. Most of their mortgages and other personal loans stay on their balance sheets and require funding. This contrasts with the US, where financial institutions securitize (these) loans and which do not require balance sheet funding. The collective funding needs of Europe's banks are vast. Total liabilities are €23 trillion for the Euro-zone and €8 trillion for the UK, Sweden, and Denmark. The lack of funding over the next 2 years must surely mean a collapse in house prices and mortgage interest rates.

"Look at a place like Salt Lake City," said Sharga. "The foreclosure rise there appears to be entirely related to the economy," not because people can't afford their subprime loans.

Greek island homes, long coveted by millionaires and Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks, are being marked down by as much as 45 percent as the country’s debt crisis destroys demand for holiday getaways. A half-built villa on Mykonos, an island in the Aegean Sea known for its all-night beach parties, is being offered by brokers at Athens-based Ploumis Sotiropoulos OE for 2 million euros ($2.6 million) after the price was reduced by 500,000 euros. The same firm is seeking a buyer for a three-bedroom home on Corfu for 750,000 euros, down from an original asking price of 1.4 million euros. So far, no bidders have emerged.

stimulus won't work not because of demographics per se, but rather because of the enormous amounts of consumer debt (as a result of decades of Keynesian and Monetarist stimulus) in conjunction with unfavorable demographics and global wage arbitrage.

Posted by bellwether @ 09:51 AM 18 Comments

Rather than blaming the World Cup I will blame those dastardly house builders for threatening to build some more. One more month of this and the Property Tycoons will be having to dip into their pockets to fund their houses.

Posted by tenyearstogetmymoneyback @ 07:16 AM 15 Comments