House Prices Drop US/UK Housing Crash? Subprime Bubble

A very frustrated Mr. Twist wrote to our Senator asking him to vote against the bailout.  He received a rather condescending reply, explaining to him how much more knowledgeable the Senator was on these issues than his constituents.  Now that the TARP program and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson have come under fire, Mr. Twist decided to write again.  With his permission, I am sharing the letter with our readers.

Dear Senator Cornyn–
Before the TARP vote, i wrote to you urging you not to support this bailout program.  It has been reported that prior to the vote, the volume of your emails and calls in opposition to the TARP was many times more than those in support of it.  In spite of this, you decided to ignore your constituents wishes, and you voted in favor of the TARP plan
On October 22, 2008, you sent me an email explaining the reasons for […]

Original post by twist

These numbers are for today.  And Google didn’t even list these symbols "in the news."
Recent quotes

MBI
3.79
-1.23
(-24.50%)

ABK
0.760
-0.380
(-33.33%)

FRE
0.560
-0.060
(-9.68%)

FNM
0.380
-0.090
(-19.15%)

C
6.40
-1.96
(-23.44%)

MS
10.25
-1.78
(-14.80%)

ING
7.53
-1.42
(-15.87%)

BOFL
4.95
-0.61
(-10.97%)

GS
55.18
-6.85
(-11.04%)

HAS
23.10
-1.76
(-7.08%)

… and equities weren’t the worst of it. "Credit markets from commercial mortgages to junk bonds fell to record lows as concerns grew that the slowing economy would overwhelm government efforts to stem the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."

All I can do is stare.  It really is this bad.

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Original post by John M.

The Telegraph: Edinburgh house prices fall 11.4 per cent It’s official. The credit crunch now has Edinburgh in its grips. More than £20,000 has been wiped off the average value of an Edinburgh home this year, according to The Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre, and the number of homes being sold has halved……………like London this city will be hit hard

Original post by titaniccaptain

News Letter: House prices fall £46k in year “IT could have been cheaper to stay in a five-star hotel for the last year than to own a house in Northern Ireland, according to dramatic figures released today. The University of Ulster’s Quarterly House Price Index today reveals that the average house price in Northern Ireland has slumped by £46,881 over the last 12 months, meaning the average house has fallen in value by £128 a day.” … “Incredibly, according to the survey, at least 10 per cent of estate agents reported no sales during the three-month period and many other agents had less than five sales.”

Original post by quiet guy

From Seattle PI:

Within two weeks, $958 million of the company’s debt will mature. Next year, an additional $3.07 billion in debt is due. General Growth is working with its lenders to extend loan maturity dates, refinance or sell assets.
However, weak retail spending has hurt the company’s prospects of refinancing the debt. If General Growth cannot find a solution in time, it will have to file for bankruptcy protection, the company warned in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Nov. 10.
“Whatever happens, regardless of our financial situation, our properties will remain open,” General Growth spokesman David Keating said Tuesday. “We’re leasing our properties, and they’re doing well. There’s really no impact.”
General Growth shares ownership of some if its mall properties but does not reveal its joint venture partners, Keating said.
“No mall is closing,” he repeated. “It’s going to be business as usual at the mall level regardless (of) what happens here […]

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Clint8200)

reuters: Deutsche Bank to axe roughly one in seven traders FRANKFURT, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank will cut roughly one in seven jobs in its trading business, or about 900 staff, its single biggest reduction to investment banking since the onset of the global financial crisis, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Original post by mark

Mises Institute: Did the Fed, or Asian Saving, Cause the Housing Bubble? Just about the only good thing to come out of the housing bubble is that many financial analysts are coming to see the virtue of the Austrian theory of the business cycle. Specifically, though Greenspan did his best to blame deregulation and foreigners who saved too much, many people now think that the Maestro’s ultra-low interest rates in the wake of the dot-com crash may very well have sowed the seeds for our current crisis. Naturally, there is more to the story of the housing boom than simply saying, “The Fed chairman did it.” But the original Misesian insight has withstood the test: it still seems that the Fed was a necessary condition for the worst speculative bubble in world history.

Original post by planning4acrash

Telegraph: House sales pick up as sellers become realistic The number of properties changing hands rose for the second consecutive month in October as sellers began to price their homes more realistically. Earlier this week it emerged that sellers had cut their asking prices by almost 3pc in just four weeks.

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Original post by jj

Telegraph: House sales pick up as sellers become realistic The number of properties changing hands rose for the second consecutive month in October as sellers began to price their homes more realistically. Earlier this week it emerged that sellers had cut their asking prices by almost 3pc in just four weeks.

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Original post by jj

The Market Oracle: G20 Central Banks Unite to Fight Economic Depression Amid the worst financial crisis and market meltdowns since the 1930’s, the world’s top-20 central bankers and finance ministers are busy at work, inflating the world’s money supply, slashing lending rates, and crafting stimulus packages, in order to prevent a normal recession from morphing into a Great Depression. The ECB has cut interest rates by 100-basis points to 3.25% since early October, and is telegraphing another 50 basis point cut at the next policy meeting in December.

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Original post by v stor