Sunday, October 21, 2007
Real Estate Slowdown Spreads To Europe
From the WSJ:
One big difference between the United States and Eurozone real estate markets is that home equity loans in Europe are rare.
That means Europeans aren't debt-leveraged to their eyebrows because of "refis" and falling home prices probably won't have the same deleterious effects they've had here when so many homeowners suddenly discover their mortgages are worth more than their homes.
The real-estate slowdown that hit the U.S. is spreading to Europe.
Home prices in some of Europe's hottest markets are falling after a decade of double-digit-percentage price increases. The reasons resemble those across the Atlantic: higher interest rates, faltering confidence and tighter lending standards.
...
Home prices in Spain more than doubled over the past 10 years, but the average price of an existing home has fallen slightly since July, according to real-estate agent facilisimo.com. France experienced its first quarterly home-price decline in nearly a decade in the third quarter, according to its federation of real-estate agents, while Irish house prices in August were 1.9% below the year-earlier level.
One big difference between the United States and Eurozone real estate markets is that home equity loans in Europe are rare.
That means Europeans aren't debt-leveraged to their eyebrows because of "refis" and falling home prices probably won't have the same deleterious effects they've had here when so many homeowners suddenly discover their mortgages are worth more than their homes.
