Timesonline: There goes the neighbourhood: bloodsuckers thrive on credit slump

Of all the crises triggered by America's property crash, the economists never predicted a plague of blood-sucking mosquitoes — spawned in the stagnant swimming pools of unsold or abandoned luxury homes. The phenomenon is threatening to turn into a disaster for cities such as Las Vegas, where land values in some areas tripled every year during the boom, prompting developers to build thousands of million-dollar mansions, complete with lavishly proportioned swimming pools and outdoor Jacuzzis.

Posted by lvmreader @ 11:06 PM 16 Comments

Telegraph: Labour crisis: No way back for Gordon Brown

The latest YouGov poll indicates Labour now has the lowest level support since the Gallup poll in 1943, a few months after El Alamein. Gordon Brown fairs significantly worse with just 15% of the electorate stating they are "satisified" with him in comparison to a massive 75% stating they are "disatisfied".

Posted by denzil @ 09:46 PM 9 Comments

Times Online: Property sales slump a third as buyers dry up

''...Housing transactions have slumped by a third as buyers struggle to secure mortgages and house prices slip, official figures show. Nearly 72,500 sales were completed on average each month between November 2007 and February 2008, sharply down from a monthly average of 103,141 in the same period 12 months ago, figures from the Land Registry show....''

Assetz® Property News Service: Where now?

When Nationwide released its house price figures this week revealing a dip of 2.5 per cent in May, there were plenty of groans but also some caveats. One of these was that the picture is the subject of much regional variation. Such a point was made by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), whose chief executive Peter Bolton King said: "The national sales figures do not tell the whole story. We know from our members that the picture is still very regional with some areas continuing to do better than others."

mortgagestrategy: Assetz urges banks to stop profiteering

Property investment firm Assetz says banks’ profiteering is lowering house prices. The accusation comes after Nationwide reported a 2.5% monthly fall drop in house prices, while the Land Registry House Price Index recorded a 0.2% drop. Stuart Law, chief executive of Assetz, says: “The marginal 0.2% monthly fall in house prices provides a true reflection of the current housing market and is far removed from the spurious 2.5% fall suggested by Nationwide earlier this week.

Posted by jack c @ 07:04 PM 18 Comments

RTÉ news: Irish house prices down 1.1% MoM, 9.2% YoY

The latest house price survey from Permanent TSB and the ESRI shows that house prices across the country fell by 1.1% last month. This is the largest drop in a single month so far this year. The survey also found that house prices had fallen by over 9.2% since April 2007. An average house was over £7,300 cheaper in April than it would have been in December.

Times: Stuck in a Streatham studio flat

Lee is looking to buy a one-bedroom flat with the sale of his studio because he needs more space. In early April he reduced the price of his flat from£169,950 to £159,950 and further dropped the price to £149,950 two weeks ago. He is considering waiting until next spring before a second attempt to sell

Posted by confused76 @ 06:30 PM 15 Comments

Bloomberg: Moody's Implied Ratings Lab Reveals Ambac, MBIA Turning to Junk

The team from Moody's Analytics, which operates separately from Moody's ratings division, uses credit-default swap prices as an alternative system of grading debt. These so-called implied ratings often differ significantly from Moody's official grades. The implied ratings frequently show that swap traders think debt is in more danger of defaulting than Moody's credit ratings signify. And here's the kicker: The swaps traders are usually right.

Guardian: Quarter of borrowers relying on windfall to pay off mortgage

Another poke in the eye for the dim VIs who claim there are fewer interest-only loans now - forgetting that interest-only these days means interest only, with no repayment plan. Even the CML, prince of the VIs, grudgingly acknowledges as much. "Oh sh1t ...."

Daily Telegraph: House price data adds confusion to an already volatile market

Basically an article that shows how different the stats are. Clearly there's a view (read the comments) that because the numbers are all created in a different way, it's best to forget looking at them as they are misleading. Except, that is, if they point upwards. "But, as Ms Barnes (Savills) is quick to point out, putting indices and predictions together, especially in the current climate, is not easy, nor possibly even advisable. Ms Barnes said: "Just by looking at an index, you cannot tell what is going to happen to house prices. Indices are backward-looking. The thing is to do is not to latch on to one single month's movement."But unless you are buying or selling at the moment, it might be best not to look at them at all." Ha ha. So if they're bad, ignore them.

MoneyWeek: Whatever he says, Brown needs oil to stay high

Gordon Brown makes much of wanting to get oil prices down. But he's not being entirely truthful - a fall in oil prices would be disastrous for him.

BBC: House prices slowdown confirmed

"It was the eighth month in a row during which annual property inflation has fallen, though the decline has not been as fast as suggested by other surveys" Many other reports have claimed that prices have fallen so fast that they are now lower than they were a year ago. On Thursday, the Nationwide said prices were now 4.4% down on May last year and had dropped at a record rate. However, the Land Registry survey, which covers all completed property sales and not just those of particular lenders, suggests that point has not yet been reached in England and Wales"

Posted by confused76 @ 01:04 PM 14 Comments

Land Registry: House price index

"London's monthly price change is -0.5 per cent for April, which is a more volatile movement than the -0.2 per cent experienced by England and Wales as a whole" but we know these reflect prices agreed back in December / January, but down trends are accelerating

Citywire: Gang groomed bank staff in multi-million pound scam

Mortgage fraudsters wined and dined staff from sub-prime lenders and entertained them with boxes at Premiership games but used chainsaws and guns to intimidate people who stood in the way of their multi-million pound scam, a recent British Bankers Association conference heard. The gang used a simple ‘flipping’ scheme, buying about 60 properties at inflated prices to defraud banks, Simon Chandler, partner at law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, told delegates at the mortgage fraud conference in London.

MoneyWeek: Credit crunch? Not when it comes to City bonuses

While the rest of us suffer, it's bonus time for the bankers whose dodgy dealing and wreckless risk-taking led to public bail-outs and worldwide financial anxiety.

Wall Street Journal: Study Casts Doubt on Key Rate

"WSJ Analysis Suggests Banks May Have Reported Flawed Interest Data for Libor LONDON -- Major banks are contributing to the erratic behavior of a crucial global lending benchmark, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. The Journal analysis indicates that Citigroup Inc., WestLB, HBOS PLC, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG are among the banks that have been reporting significantly lower borrowing costs for the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, than what another market measure suggests they should be. Those five banks are members of a 16-bank panel that reports rates used to calculate Libor in dollars."

The Telegraph: Euro suffering from 'reserve currency curse' as investors pull out

Long-term private investors are pulling their money out of the eurozone at the fastest rate since the creation of the single currency, according to a report by the French bank BNP Paribas.

Yahoo: Japanese man finds woman living in his closet

I wonder if I will find my landlord living in my closet???

Yahoo: News

I just thought, what would happen if the whole of the UK homeowners got together and simultaneously didn’t pay there mortgage for say a couple of months. whether that would seek out those lending companies who maybe hiding behind there cash flow to stay afloat. Also if we prolonged non payment this may mean that if we all did this, they (the lenders) could all go bust because they wouldn’t be able to deal with everyone defaulting at the same time. They would all go bust and we can keep our houses and never pay another mortgage payment. Anyone with me to start a campaign!!!!!!!

Reuters: Banks may be understating key lending rate: report

"Major banks may have understated Libor, a crucial global interbank lending benchmark, masking weakness in the global financial system, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Libor has indicated that the banking system was stronger than it actually was at critical junctures in the financial crisis, the paper reported." Looks like they've been lying to us chaps and chapesses

Telegraph: Housing crisis: Average home now worth what it was in 2006

Edmund Conway comes round to our way of thinking. He doesn't mention factors that mean this crash could be worse than previous ones. House prices as a proportion of earnings or rents are far higher this time, and the turnaround in the availability of mortgages has been much quicker and more vicious than I remember it being in 1989-90.

Posted by monty032 @ 09:12 AM 8 Comments

The Telegraph: Oil prices to be probed by US regulator CFTC

America's leading commodities regulator has launched an unprecedented investigation into possible market manipulation in the US crude oil market amid record prices which continue to cripple various parts of the global economy.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:50 AM 60 Comments

BBC: Rock to take on more debt staff

Northern Rock is to more than double the number of people who work in its debt management department over the next year, the BBC has learned.

reuters: More UK bank rating pressure possible -Moody's

UK banks "MAY" face further pressure on their debt ratings this year as the credit crisis continues, Moody's Investors Service warned on Friday, although most institutions can "MANAGE" the downturn at current rating levels. Moody's had said it had run stress tests on mortgage lenders' exposure to house price declines, and that as a result it did not expect the "quality of portfolios to deteriorate so much as to eat into core capital". Lovely piece of Doublespeak. But really, who believes Moody's models?

Independent: House prices now falling at fastest rate since early 1990s

(Yeah, I know this is the zillionth story based on the same Nationwide figures, but let's celebrate while we can.) The largest monthly drop ever seen in the Nationwide's survey of the property market prompted some economists yesterday to predict a "deep and prolonged" housing slump. The price of a typical house is now £8,000 less than at this time last year. Negative equity in this downturn will be much more serious than it was during the early 1990s, simply because the price of property has trebled since then. Repossession orders are running at a 15-year high. Figures from the British Bankers Association this week showed a fall of almost 40 per cent in the number of new mortgage approvals. Further pain seems likely.

Posted by little professor @ 12:34 AM 42 Comments

The Times: Negative equity fears soar after record slump in house prices

This month’s slide in prices prompted economists to forecast that house prices would fall by more than 20 per cent in two years. This would plunge two million homeowners, or one in six mortgage borrowers, into negative equity, according to Morgan Stanley, the investment bank.

BBC News: World Bank offers $1.2bn food aid

I've not quite worked out what the World Bank's agenda is. From wikipedia, it appears to be 'part-charity/part-profit-making-money-lender'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_bank If world food price inflation is real (and not just a reflection of dollar weakness/short-term speculation/etc) and is getting worse, it's going to take more than the World Bank and Live Aid 2010/2011/2012 to stop people starving.

Posted by doom&gloom @ 08:49 PM 26 Comments

BBC NEWS: Expert reaction to house price survey

Here is some of the reaction from experts to the survey.....................Ha Ha check out the JP Morgan Stooge

Posted by titaniccaptain @ 07:47 PM 12 Comments

Economist: Through the floor

America's house prices are falling even faster than during the Great Depression AS HOUSE prices in America continue their rapid descent, market-watchers are having to cast back ever further for gloomy comparisons.

ITV.com: Calculate your house price

Fears for ther UK housing market have deepened after figures from Nationwide showed the average cost of a home dropped by 2.5 per cent in May - the seventh running month house prices have slumped. It is the biggest monthly fall recorded by the building society with average prices now 4.4 per cent lower than a year ago. The report also revealed that a typical home lost almost £5,000 in value over the month. To find out how the value of your property may have changed, click on the link below:

CNN.com/living: Man pays $30K in rent, faces eviction

Charles Nelson has paid about $30,000 in rent since moving into a spacious four-bedroom home in August. He was stunned when a real estate agent knocked on his door recently and said the home was in foreclosure. His landlord had not paid the mortgage since he moved in and the bank is now demanding the house back. Nelson will also lose his $7,700 security deposit. When he confronted the landlord, he says, he was given a terse response: "That's none of your business." Other victims of HPC to think about !

Posted by plato @ 06:49 PM 6 Comments

House prices: Welcome to the bust: Guardian

This is linked to in the previous article but worth a post for its return of the VIs' lame serves. Of course we all knew this already, but always good to see in the newspapers.

Posted by letthemfall @ 05:52 PM 6 Comments

Find a property: Market Will Recover By 2010

In a new forecast for the residential market, the estate agency predicts that the economy will progressively weaken over the course of the year and remain soft in 2009. This slowdown will have an inevitable impact on the housing market, but only in the short-term. Price falls will moderate to just 1-2 per cent in 2009 and will climb again in 2010 by 2-4 per cent. Looking further ahead, they forecast that UK house price growth will then surge towards ten per cent by mid-2012 and average around eight per cent a year from 2011-2013. > A bit simplistic but shows that VI sentiment has turned somewhat. I don't expect to see any 'rise' in value from the trough for at least 5 to 7 years

Guardian: House prices: Judgment Day or Apocalypse Now?

At the bottom of the article just before the comments.

Times: Revealed: the truth behind the housing market scare stories

The stream of bad news coming out of the housing market has grown into a torrent in recent weeks, with stories of falling house prices, withdrawn mortgage rates and warnings about payment shocks. Excpet they were never 'stories' - fact is always more surprising than fiction....

Posted by rental john @ 04:47 PM 10 Comments

Interactive Invester: Bear Stearns shareholders OK buyout by JPMorgan

Bear Stearns Cos. shareholders on Thursday approved JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s $2.2 billion buyout of the investment bank whose wagers on subprime mortgages made it the largest corporate casualty of the global credit crisis.

Estateangels: Landlords should look for 40 per cent property discounts

"Landlord Mortgages has advised buy-to-let investors that they should be looking for around a 40 per cent discount on property" "If you are under market value today but are then undercut by 20 per cent in the next year then no, it wasn’t a good time to buy" like they say... PRICELESS!

Posted by confused76 @ 04:06 PM 8 Comments

Yahoo: News

I just bought a house near bristol made an offer from £525,000 asking price, made an offer for £440,000 vendor wanted £475,000 to start with. Told him naaah!! Three weeks later he accepted our offer. I know the property we are buying will go down still, but feel I got a fair deal in anticipation of another lets say 8% drop.

Posted by thedevilsuglytwin @ 02:36 PM 20 Comments

FT: John Charcol consults staff on redundancies

John Charcol is consulting on redundancies and its chief executive is discussing his future with management according to head of communications Drew Wotherspoon. Wotherspoon would not confirm how many people would be made redundant, but said that the company's chief executive Ian Kennedy was discussing "future roles" at John Charcol with chairman John Garfield. John Charcol's product specialist Katie Tucker has also left with immediate effect.

Posted by jack c @ 01:53 PM 6 Comments

Times: High street prices in biggest surge since 1992

''...The retreat by consumers from the high street slowed slightly from April despite prices rising at the fastest pace for 16 years, a key CBI survey found today. Sales fell for the second consecutive month in May but the fall was less sharp than expected. They are forecast to rise next month. The figures spell the latest blow to fast-fading hopes for any further cuts in interest rates over the summer. ...''

Channel 4: House prices fall by 2.5%

Homeowners should be braced for more pain after a shock 2.5% fall in house prices during May, experts have warned. Almost £5,000 was wiped off values after the largest single-month fall in the 17-year history of the Nationwide building society's index. The average house now costs £173,583 - 4.4% lower than a year ago and the biggest annual decline since December 1992. Prices have fallen for seven months in a row.

Sydney Morning Herald: Priced out of the boom

If you live in Sydney and have not bought a house yet, you might have to get used to renting, writes Michael Duffy. Late last year an American pro-growth consultancy named Demographia announced that the median house in this city cost 8.5 times the median household income. This was up from a multiple of five in the 1980s, which even then was steep. Demographia defines "affordable" as a multiple of no more than three. The 2005 result meant housing in Sydney was the sixth least affordable of 100 cities looked at around the world. "Sydney house prices are somewhere between 50 and 60 per cent higher than Melbourne house prices … it is still nearly 10 times average earnings in NSW to buy a house, whereas in Melbourne it is about seven times."

SEMP: Oil Doesn't Come from Squashed Ferns and Fish??

What IS the evidence for each of the two theories of the origin of oil? Two main observations have favored the biogenic (ferns and fish) origin of petroleum. 1. “Petroleum contains groups of molecules [e.g., “hopanoids,” a material coming from bacterial cell-walls], which are clearly identified as the breakdown products of complex, but common, organic molecules that occur in plants, and that could not have been built up in a non-biological process.” (6) 2. “Petroleum is mostly found in sedimentary deposits and only rarely in the primary rocks of the crust below; even among the sediments, it favors those that are geologically young. In many cases such sediment appears to be rich in carbonaceous materials that were interpreted as of biological origin, and as source material for the petroleum

Posted by lvmreader @ 01:03 PM 39 Comments

Sydney Morning Herald: Merger raises $64bn question

INVESTORS are preparing for further consolidation in the banking sector, as Westpac tries to gain control of the country's fifth-largest bank. Westpac and St George banks remained in a trading halt yesterday as negotiations continued in a deal that would dramatically alter the Australian banking landscape.

Sydney Morning Herald: Banks agree on mega-merger

Update Westpac and St George have agreed a merger deal that values the combined group at just over $66 billion and will see the smaller bank's investors own 28% of the new financial institution. The terms of the deal will see St George's shareholders receive 1.31 Westpac shares for every one of their own shares. In all, the transaction values St George at $18.6 billion or $33.10 per share. That represents a 24% premium to its most recent closing price of $26.65.

MoneyWeek: UK house prices have their Wile E. Coyote moment

To virtually nobody's surprise, UK house prices have shot off the edge of the precipice and are plummeting headfirst to the bottom of the canyon. It is unlikely that anyone save a few particularly optimistic estate agents will be surprised by any of this - so how far could things go?

Safe Haven: US Economic Outlook 2008-11+

Great 27 page slide show - all you need to know and very concise

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 12:57 PM 14 Comments

Firstrung: House price crash not on the radar - NAEA

Following the release of the Nationwide house price index today, Peter Bolton King, Chief Executive of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the residential sales arm of the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP), said: "The national sales figures do not tell the whole story. We know from our members that the picture is still very regional with some areas continuing to do better than others. Indeed, our recent survey of agents records some stability returning to the market in the number of sales agreed, the number of viewings before a sale is secured and the average difference between asking and sales price.

Posted by converted lurker @ 12:56 PM 11 Comments

Firstrung: Over half of working Brits would survive finanically for only four months if they lost their jobs - Egg

A quarter of people in Britain have little or no money set aside for emergency situations, according to research by online bank Egg...And what's more, over half of all working Britons (52%) do not have sufficient savings to support their families were they to find themselves out of work, even if only for the UK's average redundancy period of four months.

Firstrung: Mortgage and banking complaints increase by 300% in 2007 - Financial Ombusdman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service - the independent organisation that settles disputes between consumers and financial companies, has published its annual review for the 2007/08 financial year. The review shows that during the year, the ombudsman: Handled a record 794,648 consumer enquiries and 123,089 new complaints - a 30% annual increase. Saw the number of mortgage and banking disputes more than triple, and insurance disputes double - while complaints about mortgage endowments fell by 70%.

Market Oracle: Imminent Banking Stocks Destruction

The totally unreported story lately is that banks face larger losses, as housing prices continue their historic decline, ensuring profound additional bond losses. Banks have openly admitted it. Watch for the bond insurers to basically go bust, belly up, after failing to replace their capital core. The charts tell the story. The financial press networks do not, as they continue to obey their advertisers who pay the bills and dictate the messages, even if totally false. This USGovt Administration might do well to formalize a new cabinet post, Secy of Information, in keeping with a tradition started seventy years ago in Berlin

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 12:32 PM 8 Comments

Telegraph: House prices are still on track for a 20pc drop

The plunge in house prices in May is a reminder of just how fast house prices can decline. Of course, given the lack of mortgage finance, as well as weak buyer interest, anything other than another fall this month would have been a surprise. The sheer size of the drop in house prices, without the economy having yet slowed significantly, suggests that this housing market correction will be deep and prolonged.

Guardian: Labour cash crisis could bankrupt party leaders

... couldn't happen to a nicer bunch, could it?

Posted by mark wadsworth @ 12:11 PM 15 Comments

MoneyWeek: It's the ECB birthday party, but not everyone gets cake

The European Central Bank is ten years old and there's a big party at its German HQ, but not everyone in the eurozone is celebrating with quite so much gusto. The second ten years are going to be a lot less triumphant than the first ten...

The Telegraph: Asian countries begin to burst the oil bubble

One by one, countries across Asia and the Middle East are being forced to abandon price controls on fuel and energy, bringing hundreds of millions of consumers face to face with the true market cost of oil. The effect has already begun to chip away at world demand and may ultimately trigger a slide in crude prices.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 11:43 AM 26 Comments

IOL (South Africa): Tito hints at huge hike

"Consumers and unions are reeling in shock after SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni hinted on Wednesday he may raise the benchmark interest rate by two percentage points next month to help bring inflation back within the target range." Wonder how house prices are doing there. Loads of people from the UK bought houses in Cape Town. Wonder what they are worth now? I wonder how they feel about the security situation?

The Telegraph: US and European debt markets flash new warning signals

The debt markets in the US and Europe have begun to flash warning signals yet again, raising fears that the global credit crisis could be entering another turbulent phase.

Reuters: Investors flee emerging property markets

LONDON (Reuters) - Cash-thirsty investors are being forced to abandon plans for investment in emerging property sectors because of persistent problems in global money markets, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said on Thursday.

The Telegraph: House prices fall by biggest margin in 17 years

House prices fell by 2.5 per cent this month - the biggest monthly drop since records began 17 years ago, according to Nationwide figures.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:57 AM 37 Comments

Evening Standard/Thisismoney: Property fears grow as house prices dive

The Evening Standard's translating today's wipeout figures this: "The housing market today looked as though it was headed into its biggest crisis since the crash of the early 1990s". Surely we're already in that crisis! And it goes cites the approaching blizzard... "The Nationwide figures follow a blizzard of weak news on the housing market, with everyone from rival lender Halifax to the Bank of England and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reporting massive falls in mortgage lending and sales."

Times Online: House prices fall at fastest rate for 17 years

''...The slump in Britain's house prices accelerated in May to the fastest level since the Nationwide began records 17 years ago. The price of an average house fell 2.5 per cent in the month, making the seventh consecutive monthly fall in prices, the longest downward slope since the housing recession of 1992...''

Nationwide.co.uk: House price falls accelerate in May

Link to latest press release from Nationwide indicating house price falls are accelerating (price are now falling ca 10% p.a. if you take latest quarterly view of falls). Fionnuala's department at Nationwide of course can only see the positives: " * House prices fell by 2.5% in May * Prices are 4.4% lower than this time last year, but remain 5% higher than 2 years ago * Falling house prices combined with higher inflation makes MPC decision more difficult still * Borrowers are better placed to weather the storm than in the 1990s * Tighter credit conditions should help the longer term sustainability of the market"

Posted by trough2010 @ 08:14 AM 48 Comments

Nationwide: May HP figures

The first of many - now a YoY drop of alomst 5%

Posted by growler @ 08:07 AM 8 Comments

Telegraph Online: UK house price decline accelerated in May

On Radio 4 Today's programme Fionnuala Earley remained upbeat and claimed the credit markets were opening again and this would raise hope in the housing market. From utter gloom to rather gloomy Ms Earley? Still, I'm not seeing evidence of FORCED SALES around my area though.

Posted by talking rot @ 08:05 AM 6 Comments

BBC News: House price falls 'accelerating'

Nationwide admitting an accelerating decline in house prices. No short term forecast but a further drop implied.

Bloomberg: Nationwide - May pricees worst since 1991

the YOY decline is now nearly 5%...already in the first 5 mths....so should we see a frantic revisions from those calling for 'modest single digit declines' in 2008? Contrast the lack of 'modesty' in reported figures by these same players when prices were ballooning upwards over the last few years...:)=

Independent: Credit crunch sends property prices falling worldwide

The housing slump is going global, with the adverse effects of the credit crunch on property values spreading from Europe and the US to the rest of the world.

BBC News: House Price Falls Accelerating

House prices have recorded their largest monthly fall since 1991, says the Nationwide building society. Prices have fallen by 2.5% during May, according to its latest monthly survey.

lse: Recording of the live event -The opportunity to trial a live webcast was made possible by funding from George Soros.

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means (Speakers: George Soros and Howard Davies). It was available between 5pm and 6pm (BST) on Wednesday 21 May. This was the first event to be streamed live from LSE via the www and was a trial webcast.

Emirates business 24: Steps needed to avoid West-like bust

"For a country, which has almost made a fetish of the property, and which has used the rising value of property assets as the basis of its prosperity for many years, the consequences of this collapse are excruciating"

Times Online: The End of the World Is Nigh: It's Name Is Gordon

Not quite the Gordon you expect but a namesake proclaiming it's TEOTWAWKI.Apparently half of humanity will be toast by July - should clear up the holiday resorts for a nice summer break!

BBC News: Reversal of Abbey mortgage rates

''...Abbey has reversed cuts it made to mortgage rates two weeks ago, one of two lenders lifting borrowing costs. The Abbey is raising rates on new fixed-rate deals by between 0.15% and 0.56% from 29 May...''

Posted by hpwatcher @ 04:25 PM 20 Comments

Contractor UK: Buy-to-let investors could be fined

Opps. Looks like MPs have taken a dislike to the BTL market as well.

Posted by dude @ 04:11 PM 16 Comments

BBC News: Estate Agency Loses Out in Court

I do. I hated them before the documentaries came out showing their illegal fly boarding and sharp practices. I hated them even more afterwards. I hate their minis. I hate their salespeople. I bought a bottle of champagne when Inside Track went bust. I will buy a case of 12 bottles if Foxtons ever go bust.

Posted by doom&gloom @ 04:04 PM 16 Comments

Daily Telegraph: Treasury struggles with Northern Rock

"The feeling is the Treasury is just looking for a rubber stamp" Not too much change with anything else emanating from this office then

FT: Paragon is 'stable' despite a first-half profit decline

Despite deterioration in the housing market Paragon Mortgages has announced a stable financial position in its latest interim results. In the results for the six months to 31 March this year, the company has announced a profit before tax of £26.4m compared with last year's interim result of £43.3m.The company will pay an interim dividend of 1p a share on 1 August, 7p a share less than was issued at the same time last year. HOW LONG BEFORE PARAGON MOVES FROM "STABLE" TO "INTENSIVE CARE"?

Daily Mail: Repossessions crisis 'could be worse than 1992'

More homebuyers are at risk of losing their homes than during the property bust of 1992, new research says. A report published by insurance giant AXA yesterday said as many as 1.8million buyers will be struggling to cover monthly repayments by the end of this year. The figure is 200,000 higher than in 1992, when the country was gripped by recession, rising unemployment and mortgage interest rates of 15 per cent.

aboutproperty.co.uk: Mortgage shelf life falls dramatically

The average shelf-life of mortgage products in the UK market has fallen dramatically over the last year, according to new research. At present deals remain on the market for an average of just 11 working days, down from 30 per cent just one year ago, finds research from MoneyFacts.co.uk. Indeed, following the Bank of England's decision to cut the base rate of interest during April, deals appeared and were subsequently removed from the market in as little as six days.

MoneyWeek: Oil is in a bubble. Yeah, course it is, Anatole

Whatever Anatole Kaletsky may claim in The Times, there is no oil bubble and no over-supply. Oil may be over-bought, there may be a correction coming, but the larger trend is upwards, says Dominic Frisby.

Posted by damien @ 12:44 PM 33 Comments

sydney morning herald: Empty homes now for all to see

Gmap of vacant properities in Australia. I like the community aspect of creating this map and the way it shows up where people might be sitting on investment properties. Why isn´t there one of these for the UK? a good addition to HPC.

Posted by al @ 12:44 PM 12 Comments

aboutproperty.co.uk: First time buyers finding it harder than ever to get a mortgage

Evidence of the continuing decline of first time buyers in the mortgage market emerged today as Charcol revealed only four per cent of its customers were first time buyers in March. The mortgage broker blamed the lack of mortgage deals above 90 per cent loan to value for the decline. It also accused mortgage lenders of charging borrowers who could not provide a deposit of at least 25 per cent of the value of the property they wished to buy up to three quarters of a per cent more in interest.

Times: Stunning collapse of bond fund leaves Carlyle down, not out

The apparent overnight meltdown of a $22 billion (£10.9 billion) credit fund is a huge embarrassment for Carlyle Group, the US private equity firm with unrivalled links to big business and global politics. Even a few weeks ago it would have been inconceivable that a fund operated by such a well-established and respected investment firm that specialised in AAA-bonds would suddenly melt down - especially when it invested in bonds underwritten by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the US government-chartered mortgage groups.

Times: Abbey raises cost of fixed-rate mortgages again

Abbey raised the minimum deposit required for most borrowers from 5 per cent to 10 per cent of a property's value to reduce its exposure to the downturn in property prices. It also made it harder for homeowners to take out cheaper interest-only deals. Those who do not have at least 25 per cent equity will no longer be able to switch from capital repayment to interest only - a common way of reducing monthly outgoings for homeowners struggling with rising living costs.

Post Magazine: Axa warns homeowners over downturn

Nearly 16 years since the last major economic downturn in the UK, research published by Axa claims UK homeowners have failed to learn the lessons of 1992 Its research reveals there are more people at risk of falling into mortgage arrears or having their home repossessed, and the vast majority of homeowners have no protection in place to guard against possible financial hardship. Yes - but as you were in your teens or younger in the early 90's why should you know what would happen - house prices always go up - right?

guardian: What credit crunch? City bankers receive £13bn bonuses this year

City "workers" have been awarded £13.2bn in bonuses so far this year, suggesting that the credit crunch has yet to be felt in the pockets of most bankers. The figure is down a modest 1% on the same stage a year ago. You have to sympathise, they are doing an important job with great personal risk, doing a hard day's work comparable to soldiers in Iraq. They really do believe it. And after all that they have to take a 1% hit.

Posted by mken @ 11:10 AM 16 Comments

aboutproperty.co.uk: 'Bad as it's ever been' for first-time buyers

The situation for first-time buyers in the UK property market is presently as "bad as it's ever been", according to campaign website Firstrung. However, with house prices seemingly on the verge of a major correction, the environment could be about to improve. "It's as bad as it’s ever been for first-time buyers, but hopefully we are entering the period where it will start to be good again," said Paul Holmes, chief executive of Firstrung.

Posted by housebear @ 10:47 AM 10 Comments

Inside Housing: Drug traffickers accrue multi-million pound social housing portfolios

Drug dealers have amassed multi-million pound portfolios of former social housing by targeting landlords in money laundering scams, Inside Housing has learned. Criminals across England have washed cash by offering it to social tenants to buy their homes under the right to buy or the right to acquire, according to Liesel Annible, a fraud specialist at accountants Grant Thornton.

The Telegraph: Back to the 1970s, or the early 1920s?

"We could see a reply of the early 1920s, when the world system split in half as they faced the policy ructions following the Great War. Could this divergence occur in a modern global economy with (mostly) floating currencies? The emerging world inflates into the stratosphere; the Atlantic economies and Japan go into a deflationary slide? "

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:57 AM 8 Comments

Inside Housing: First rise in empty home figures for nearly a decade

The number of vacant homes in England has increased for the first time in nine years and looks set to rise further.

Citywire: Would you sell and rent back your house?

Back in the summer of 2007, before any significant amount of solid had hit the fan for the housing market, a man describing himself as a ‘property investor’, working for a sell-and-rent-back company, posted on a popular online forum I visited occasionally. Now, with homeowners performing cartwheels for mortgages, and repossession supplanting global warming and bird flu as material for the night-time dreads, the whole sell-and-rent-back business has blown up into an industry of around 2,000 operators, and most people know what they think about them.

The Telegraph: Gordon Brown calls on Opec to lift production amid surging oil price

Print lots of money - causing oil to go through the roof. Blame in on your political enemies. Very clever indeed - Nice try - but no cigar.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:30 AM 15 Comments

fundstrategy: Myriad controls stifle freedom in practice

Is the free market dead? Even its most avid supporters doubt it is working. The credit crunch is undermining their faith. Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, declared that: "Friday, March 14 2008 was the day the dream of global free market capitalism died". That was when America's Federal Reserve decided to rescue Bear Stearns. He also quoted Josef Ackermann, Deutsche Bank's chairman, saying: "I no longer believe in the market's self-healing power".The credit crunch shows how quickly rhetorical support for the free market can evaporate. Trouble at Bear Stearns and Northern Rock both brought massive intervention by the public sector.

The Herald: HSBC calls for interest rate hike to fight inflation

Europe's biggest lender - yesterday called on central bankers to raise interest rates in order to fight inflation.

afr: Westpac index at four-year low

Australia heading for an abrupt slowdown in economic growth The Reserve Bank rate rises have also brought about "a significant downturn in housing markets," the Westpac report stated

Independent: Fears for house sales are fuelled by 39% fall in mortgage lending

Another article looking at the issue solely from the perspective of sellers. Classically silly quotes here: "Savings inflows have improved, thanks to rising interest rates and the climax of the ISA season, although every pound saved is one denied the nation's retailers and housebuilders." So every penny kept in the pockets of consumers is bad, and every penny "denied" by those people for housebuilders is a bad thing? Sean O'Grady needs to check his priorities.

Guardian: Mortgages: Rise in sub-prime arrears

More than one in five borrowers on sub-prime mortgages fell behind with their repayments in the first quarter of this year, figures showed today. The proportion of borrowers on sub-prime deals falling at least 30 days into arrears - known as a delinquent mortgages - grew to 21.7% in the first three months of 2008, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P). This was up from 19.4% in the last quarter of last year. Meanwhile, the proportion of borrowers falling at least 90 days behind with repayments moved into double digits, reaching 10.6%.

Metro: 1.8m ‘cannot pay mortgages’

About 1.8million people will find it hard to pay their mortgage this year, an insurer has warned. More were at risk of losing their homes than in 1992 and have 'failed to learn the lessons' from then, Axa claimed yesterday.

Posted by quiet guy @ 07:30 AM 10 Comments

The Times: Homebuyers continue to feel the squeeze from credit crunch

Mortage rates up to 7% from 5% 2 years ago. Mortgage lending down 40%. Credit card debt being reduced a bit. Evidence that some people may be trying to save. Consumer spedning unlikely to recover before 2010.

The Times: Estate agents lose out to vendors in appeal ruling

Three senior appeal judges said that Foxtons was not entitled to a £20,000 fee after a buyer they had initially introduced to a £1.15 million home went to a joint agent that was marketing the property. In a test Court of Appeal ruling that clarifies the law on estate agents’ commission, they said that commission was only payable if the agents had already persuaded the buyer to make the purchase.

Times: Blackouts hit thousands as generators fail

Electricity blackouts hit the UK Tuesday when six power stations shut down with the unscheduled stoppages being seen as an unprecedented sign of the fragility of Britain’s power infrastructure. Operations were cancelled, people were stuck in lifts, traffic lights failed and fire engines sent out on false alarms. Householders were unable to use any appliances or make phone-calls as the blackouts hit areas including Cleveland, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and London. The cause has not revealed with power stations failing across the country as far apart as Essex and Fife.

Posted by enuii @ 11:37 PM 6 Comments

TELEGRAPH UK: German leaders are to propose a worldwide ban on oil trading by speculators, blaming the latest spike in crude prices on manipulation by hedge funds.

Uwe Beckmeyer, transport chief for Germany's Social Democrats, said his party would call for joint measures by the G8 powers to prohibit leveraged trading on energy contracts. "It's an extreme step but it has to be done," he told the Berlin media.

BBC: The housing market dilemma

"A long nine months since our house has been on the market and we've tried everything.... painting the walls.... doing the garden.... we just don't know what to do next..." [can they be serious?] To be fair, two of the experts come to the genius solution that they might just have to........ lower the price. The rightmove expert actually suggested taking it off the market and "relaunching" it [after painting the front door red] to a "refreshed and different market sector".

Posted by pendulum @ 10:59 PM 11 Comments

MoneyNews: Halifax Mortgages: Home improvements 'can add value'

Halifax Mortgages proclaims that 28 per cent of homeowners are planning DIY improvements to their property this year specifically to add value. Half of those surveyed believed that decorating and doing the garden up will add up to £5,000 to the value of their home, while 12 per cent think the increase will be between £10 and £25,000. Sadly in a falling market all that hard work and cash may be a complete waste of time.

Posted by enuii @ 09:24 PM 10 Comments

Telegraph.co.uk: First-time buyers spend half of income on mortgage

According to data from Nationwide, the country’s largest building society, the average first time buyer is handing over 49 per cent of their post-tax salary on repaying their mortgages. This is the highest level since 1990 – the depths of the last housing crash and twice the level of ten years ago. “My worry is that people will not be able to borrow themselves out of trouble. Previously people could have re-mortgaged their homes or taken out more debt on their credit cards, but these avenues have been more or less closed thanks to the credit crisis and the faltering housing market. “That is going to leave people with nowhere else to turn.”

The Times: US house prices in sharpest fall for 20 years

American house prices are collapsing almost five times as quickly as during the last US recession in 1991, with losses expected to double before any recovery begins, new data showed today. Residential property values fell 14.4 per cent over the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same three months the year before, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller US house price index. The decline marks the worst performance since the index began twenty years ago. In March alone, some cities such as Las Vegas suffered a 4.4 per cent drop in real estate values, while homes in Miami fell 4.5 per cent. Over the year as a whole, Las Vegas homes have lost 25.9 per cent of their value.

safehaven: Monetary Stuff

"As far as we can tell, most people attribute the large increases in commodity prices to NON-monetary factors such as strong growth in China, price gouging by greedy corporations, OPEC, the Iraq War, government stupidity, and the weather (including "Global Warming" and natural disasters). Some of these non-monetary factors are significant, but our assertion is that few people appreciate the key role being played by the systematic debasement of all national currencies."

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:10 PM 9 Comments

Bloomberg: Inflation Hurts German Consumers, French Companies

Confidence among French executives and German consumers fell more than economists forecast as surging prices sapped purchasing power and raised production costs.

Posted by alan @ 05:39 PM 7 Comments

Sky News: Sky Exposes The Dodgy Mortgage 'Deals'

Last November, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) warned there were an unacceptable number of dishonest mortgage brokers. Six months on and our investigation has revealed that bad practice still exists.

Posted by angonamo @ 05:24 PM 8 Comments

BBC News: Services fall 'worst since 2001'

"Companies such as restaurants, bars and cinemas have had their biggest drop in business activity since 2001, according to the employers' group the CBI...Profitability was the weakest since the survey began in 1998 and employment in the sector fell for the second quarter in a row. " And this is just in Q1/Q2 - the start of it. Expect the job losses to start around October, with repossessions really ramping up from beginning of 2008

Posted by doom&gloom @ 04:40 PM 10 Comments

Times Online: Same-day bank payments system goes live

A new service to speed up cash transfers between bank accounts has gone live, but many people will not see any immediate difference. The Faster Payment Service will enable electronic payments, made via the internet or phone, to be processed in hours, rather than the four days it has taken. By 7am on the first day, 898 payments totalling £461,383 were made successfully under the new scheme. However, critics have been disappointed at the slow adoption of the service by many of the UK's biggest banks.

Bloomberg: S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home-Price Index Falls 14.4%

Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in March by the most in at least seven years, pointing to continued weakness in the housing market that will further drag on the economy. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 14.4 percent from a year earlier, more than forecast and the most since the figures were first published in 2001. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007.

MoneyWeek: England's green and pricey land

While Britain's residential property market remains full of doom and gloom, the price of farmland is rising at a record pace. But why has farmland – traditionally a money pit – suddenly soared in value?

BBC News: Service sector in '7-year slump'

Companies such as restaurants, bars and cinemas have had their biggest drop in business activity since 2001, according to the employers' group the CBI. Profitability across the service sector as a whole was at a decade-low.

Fool.co.uk: Rental market bounces back

The housing market is collapsing. OK, perhaps that's a rather sensational statement, but nevertheless, I think there's more than a grain of truth in it. Buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to finance property purchases or are holding back for fear of buying in a falling market. Meanwhile sellers are struggling to achieve their asking prices. Indeed, according to figures from Hometrack's National Housing Survey last month, sales are going through at just 93% of the asking price on average. And property sales are taking around 50% longer to complete than they were 12 months ago.

Posted by housebear @ 02:30 PM 6 Comments

Reuters: Spaniard plans raffle for flat to escape mortgage

This caught my attention. Admittedly, that's what it's there to do but it makes me wonder how long before we see novel ways of "selling" property here crop up. I mean besides having deposits or legal expenses "paid" for you.

Times: Mortgage approvals down 40 per cent on tighter lending

"Mortgage approvals for home purchases in April were nearly 40 per cent lower year-on-year, despite rising slightly from a record low in March, new figures show. Mortgage lenders are still tightening their lending criteria and increasing their rates in the wake of the credit crunch to limit the number of mortgage applications they receive, making it increasingly difficult for borrowers, especially first-time buyers, to obtain a home loan."

The Herald: A picture of something chillingly Orwellian

Imagine a world where the government knows where you are all the time. Imagine a world where a man you've never met knows you are about to get married before your beloved has even popped the question. Imagine a world where you can be refused a mortgage or life insurance because someone has mislaid or sold your personal details. These aren't scare stories. There are already hundreds of sites selling medical histories and other sensitive data. I try to protect my privacy by shredding mail, refusing loyalty cards and always ticking the box on forms refusing permission to share my details. What's the point when the new information superhighway is a two-way street between government and the commercial world, with my personal details moving along it in both directions?

MoneyWeek: Three shocking examples of the financial plight we’re in

Getting a mortgage with complete strangers, calls for the Bank of England to muck about with the CPI and bankers rigging prices all demonstrate what a mess we're in...

Timesonline: George Soros: The economy’s doomed

‘It’s like a Greek tragedy,” says George Soros, with a smile playing around his lips. “You can see the trouble coming and you can’t avoid it.”

Posted by mrmickey @ 12:40 PM 7 Comments

BBC: Tenants' money 'still not safe'

If you are about to come to the end of a tenancy & the landlord/agency hasn't signed over your deposit to an official scheme, you can get 3 x your deposit back: "If a landlord does not sign up to a scheme, it is up to the tenant to take their landlord or agent to the county court, which has the powers to award a tenant three times their deposit."

SOTT: Signs Economic Commentary for 26 May 2008

First, mortgage-backed securities. Starting in 1980 - "when scarcely any such thing existed" - they total $3.5 trillion-worth today. Then he cited "the whole range" of other newly-born asset-backed instruments - automobile loans, equipment loans, student loans, credit card-backed debt derivatives.. Take hedge funds, for example; Ferguson notes that in 1990, those financial life-forms known as "hedge funds" numbered around 600 (also including funds of funds). Now they've reproduced and multiplied up towards 10,000. "Inflation will return to the 2% target," claimed Mervyn King, head of the Bank of England - and one half of the financial furry freak brothers running Anglo-American monetary policy - last week. "Growth will eventually recover to a sustainable rate."

SKY NEWS: VIDEO OF LIAR LOANS - WATCH THIS!!

Sky Discovers Dodgy Mortgage Deals A Sky News investigation has found evidence of mortgage brokers misleading lenders and arranging loans they know buyers can't afford. Joel Hills found some brokers seem prepared to bend the rules to seal a deal.

MSN: Is the Uk Govt Going Bust?

People are seeing through the lies and deceit now! The UK has been sold down the river. Inflation, crime , debt, employment, NHS, prisons, immigartion. You name it, all messed up by Labour.

Posted by waitingfor hpc @ 10:41 AM 18 Comments

FT: Recent borrowers hit problems earlier

Sean Hannigan, a director and credit analyst at S&P, said the terms of subprime loans, including those with relatively low upfront rates, are typically so punitive that even if borrowers need to pay a penalty, it is worth their while to refinance as soon as possible. The slowing of prepayment rates may also suggest that sharp house price inflation, which improved the position of earlier borrowers with poor credit, is no longer helping recent borrowers. In addition, the data suggest more recent borrowers are running into financing difficulties earlier in their mortgages.

FT: Sharp rise in overdue mortgage