Real Estate News - December 2010

The following news stories are those which are most important for understanding the house price crash and the impact on house prices going forward...

December 31

FT: House prices in England and Wales fell further in November, with declines particularly acute in the relatively affluent south-east, sending average values to levels not seen since February 2006, official data show

FT: The average pension scheme of FTSE 100 companies saw the value of its assets crash by 17 per cent in 2008, wiping a total of £65bn from retirement funds, according to a study from Deloitte

FT: Eurozone lending stagnates as banks get tough

Wall Street Journal: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation said Tuesday that they will lend $200 million to Georgia's biggest bank in an effort to help the country through the international financial crisis

December 30

FT: Lenders reel from a chaotic year

Marketwatch: US home prices off record 18% in past year, Case-Shiller says

FT: The pound plummeted to its weakest level yet against the euro on Monday, reaching a low of almost £0.98, as investors responded to signs of gloom in the UK economy

Property Week: Crunch forces more than 30,000 estate agents out of their jobs

December 27-28-29

FT: UK house prices fall 8.7% in 2008

Property Week: Britain's banks face up to £70bn of losses on commercial property loans, enough to force some of them into a further round of taxpayer bail-outs

Property Week: Adams, the children’s wear chain, plans to appoint PwC as administrator as soon as today after it became the latest retailer to fall victim to the consumer downturn

Property Week: Scottish retailer USC, which is backed by retail and property entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter, goes into administration

December 26

December 25

December 24

Times: Collapse of Whittard and Officer’s Club threatens hundreds more jobs

Property Week: Zavvi goes into administration

FT: Sterling falls as UK economy contracts

Reuters: GMAC gets Fed's OK to become bank holding company

Reuters: Regulators near deal for IndyMac

FT: Japan PM announces record budget

December 23

FT: Falling UK commercial property prices

Marketwatch: U.S. Nov. existing-home sales fall 8.6% - Home prices decline at fastest annual pace on record

Marketwatch: New-home sales drop to 407,000 in November, off 2.9% - Total U.S. home sales fall to lowest level since 1991

Reuters: American Express to get $3.39 billion of TARP funds

FT: China cuts rates further to 5.31%

FT: China bails out Taiwan

Times: Whittard to become UK's latest retail casualty

FT: Bond and loan volumes slump

December 20-21-22

Property Week: Residential rents in prime central London fall 10% in three months

FT: UK house sales forecast to hit record low

Times: The credit crunch will ensure that China becomes the world’s largest economy within a decade

Telegraph: Accountancy firms are believed to have at least 15 large so-called pre-pack administrations lined up for January as the economy continues to falter

December 19

Times: Fears increase over the economy as borrowing reaches new high

FT: Sterling nears parity with euro

FT: Dollar in spotlight amid currency volatility

Times: 75,000 could lose their homes in 2009, says Council of Mortgage Lenders

Mortgage Strategy: Halifax and Nationwide steer clear of house price forecasts

December 18

FT: What is quantitative easing?

FT: Commercial property fears deepen

FT: Nationwide in 95% mortgage market

Wall Street Journal: China's House Prices Curb Growth

December 17

Reuters: Gold retains allure as cenbanks battle deflation

Reuters: OPEC oil ministers agreed their deepest output cut ever on Wednesday, cutting 2.2 million barrels per day from oil markets in a race to balance supply with rapidly crumbling demand for fuel

FT: Fed dips into toolbox to fix long-term rates

December 16

Marketwatch: U.S. Nov. housing starts plunge 18.9% to record low

Marketwatch: FOMC cuts rate 0.75 percentage point to 0.25%, use all tools

Reuters: Fed cuts rates to record low

FT: HBOS trading statement raises alarm

December 13-14-15

Times: City workers are rushing to offload their Canary Wharf apartments amid job losses in the financial sector

Telegraph: Bond traders in Latin America are braced for stormy week after Ecuador became the first country – apart from the Seychelles – to default on its sovereign debt since the global crisis began

FT: HSBC joins victims of Madoff’s alleged fraud

FT: Nomura reveals $303m exposure to Madoff

Telegraph: British government tipped to launch rescue package for car industry

Times: Ireland launches €10bn bailout for its banks

Property Week: King Sturge’s Spanish arm to file for administration

Property Week: Wichford, the listed company that buys government-occupied property, this morning revealed a 57% plunge in its net asset value in the year to 30 September

Marketwatch: As card issuers slash balance-transfer offers, consumers' work gets harder

December 12

Reuters: Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud hits other investors

Marketwatch: Sanderson State Bank of Sanderson, Texas fails: 25th of year

Times: Mortgage scheme rules likely to limit householders' help

Times: Connells to offload its stake in Rightmove

FT: Alistair Darling extended the potential length of a state-backed mortgage holiday for struggling homeowners on Wednesday, but he insisted that the risks of default would be shared with lenders

FT: Detroit reels as $14bn rescue fails

FT: Fed mulls exceptional monetary measures

December 11

FT: The Bank of Korea on Thursday slashed its benchmark interest rate by 1 percentage point to the lowest ever amid growing concerns that the economy may slip into its first recession in a decade next year

FT: House approves $14bn Detroit rescue bill

FT: GMAC yesterday said it could drop its attempt to become a bank holding company after failing to raise the capital needed, casting doubt on its ability to survive the financial crisis

December 10

Reuters: California's budget crisis is growing worse as its shortfall for its current fiscal year has increased to an estimated $14.8 billion

Times: Cost of personal loans soars. Deals under 8 per cent have disappeared despite the cut in the base rate

Times: Estate agents offer ‘bargains’ in Christmas sale

Independent: Britain worse credit risk than McDonald's

FT: Payment woes demolish ‘poshest builder’

FT: Canadian dollar tumbles after rate cut

FT: Interest rate on US T-bills turns negative

FT: House sales continue fall to record low

FT: Hips extension draws fire from estate agents

December 9

Times: Number of house sales slumped to a new 30-year low between September and November. Number of house hunters increases.

FT: Pensions lifeboat risks being swamped

Reuters: Pending home sales slip

December 6-7-8

Times: Barack Obama reveals stimulus package that could exceed $1 trillion

Reuters: Homeowners redefaulting after getting aid

December 5

Marketwatch: British Nov. house prices see 14.9% annual fall: Halifax

Times: Homeowners lose out as banks refuse to pass on the latest cut

Times: New car sales in November plunge 36.8%

Times: Creditworthy borrowers are being refused deals when they remortgage because cautious surveyors are giving their homes lower-than-expected valuations

Reuters: U.S. job losses worst since 1974 as downturn deepens

Marketwatch: Foreclosures, delinquencies hit record high

Times: Central banks cut interest rates; Europe cut 75 basis points to 2.5 per cent, Sweden cut 175bp to 2 per cent and New Zealand cut 150bp to 5 per cent

December 4

Marketwatch: Bank of England cuts rates to 2%, lowest level since 1939. ECB follows.

Times: Homeowners who lose their jobs or suffer a severe drop in earnings are to be allowed to defer their mortgage interest payments for up to two years, Gordon Brown announced yesterday

FT: Mortgage holiday plan leaves confusion

FT: New Zealand cuts interest rates to 5%

Times: Sterling tumbles to 13-year low as economy’s woes raise prospect of historic rate cut

FT: Brown throws homeowners mortgage lifeline

December 3

December 2

Reuters: Big three US automakers ask for a combined $34 billion in loans and credit lines as sales slump

Property Week: Shares in CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle plunged on Wall Street yesterday amid a raft of poor economic news

FT: Sterling plummets against dollar

December 1

FT: House prices down 8.1%

Times: Reprieve for families as RBS delays repossessions