House Prices Drop US/UK Housing Crash? Subprime Bubble

Telegraph: Willem Buiter warns of massive dollar collapse The long-held assumption that US assets - particularly government bonds - are a safe haven will soon be overturned as investors lose their patience with the world’s biggest economy, according to Willem Buiter.
Professor Buiter, a former Monetary Policy Committee member who is now at the London School of Economics, said this increasing disenchantment would result in an exodus of foreign cash from the US.

Original post by flintster1994

Nationwide: House prices fall by 2.5% in December The price of a typical house fell by 2.5% in December 2008, a stark contrast with the modest fall of 0.4% in
November 2008.

Original post by jeremy

HousePriceCrash.co.uk: A collection of websites with useful calculators HousePriceCrash.co.uk adds a new section on calculators.

Original post by nick vivian

The Market Oracle: UK Housing Market Crash and Depression Forecast 2007 to 2012 In conclusion, the sum of the above analysis suggests that house prices having fallen by 19% are about half way to the lows, and therefore suggest that house prices will decline by 38% from the August 2007 peak. The housing market trend is clearly currently in the panic stage as we are witnessing near unprecedented house price falls at the rate of more than 16% per annum, far beyond that of the 1990’s bear market.

Original post by nadeem walayat

BBC: House prices ‘fell 15.9% in 2008′ House prices fell by 15.9% last year, according to the latest survey by the Nationwide building society.

Original post by holding out

Lancashire Evening Post: “House values start to rise again” “House prices in parts of Lancashire are on the rise at the start of 2009 - with Preston leading the way. New figures released by the Land Registry, the official government register of all (sic) property sales, has revealed the average cost of a home in Lancashire is £154,922, an increase of 1.3% in three months up to December. In Preston, prices were up 6.1% in the same period……Estate Agents across the county said the prices are signs of the green shoots of recovery for the area’s property market….” Blah, blah, blah. At least they used quotation marks for the headline.

Original post by crashpad4me

Tim Duy says ‘Don’t drink the kool-aid’:
Local pride is an asset, but we should not let cheerleading lead to complacency. Policymakers and the business community need to stop drinking the “Oregon is different” Kool-Aid and recognize that with the national economy heading into what is likely the worst recession since the early 1980s, Oregon almost certainly faces an economic downturn that exceeds that of 2001-2003. The prudent approach in this environment is to plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

Original post by portlandhousing@yahoo.com (Clint8200)

NYTimes.com: Manufacturing Reports Show Depth of Global Downturn From Australia to Asia and Europe to the United States, the message on Wednesday in the latest economic reports was clear: manufacturing continued to slump amid the worst slowdown since the Great Depression.

Original post by v stor

BBC News: Obama ‘planning $800bn stimulus’ US President-elect Barack Obama is meeting Congressional leaders to discuss his plans for a multi-billion dollar stimulus package.
US media reports say the package could be worth more than $800bn (£551bn), including $300bn of tax cuts - which would be higher than had been expected.

Original post by flintster1994

guardian.co.uk: FSA to end short-selling ban on bank shares The Financial Services Authority today defied calls from politicians to maintain the ban on short selling introduced to protect HBOS from speculative attacks at the height of last year’s banking crisis.
The City regulator will no longer prevent traders taking out positions which allow them to profit from falls in share prices but will instead demand that they disclose their positions to the stockmarket.

Original post by plato