Real Estate News - October 2008

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

October 31

FT: House prices drop 14.6% year-on-year

Times: House prices fall by more than average annual pay

Times: Risky but potentially rewarding - property auctions are hotting up as the market cools

October 30

FT: Fannie plans to write down $20bn asset

Times: Alistair Darling indicated last night that there would be tax rises or spending cuts after the next election as he pledged to borrow initially to see Britain through the recession but then to rebuild public finances once it is over

October 29

New York Times: Concerned Fed Trims Key Rate by a Half Point

Reuters: U.S., China kick off global round of rate cuts

Marketwatch: Home prices fall record 16.6% in past year

FT: Slump hits London’s richest homeowners

Times: Lloyds TSB blocks interest-only mortgage switch

FT: Hungary gets $25.1bn rescue package

FT: EU approves German bail-out scheme

FT: This month, in an ostensible move to protect the savings of workers in the face of a worldwide financial crisis, the Argentinian administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has proposed doing it again by nationalising private pension funds.

October 28

October 25-26-27

Times: Ukraine agrees terms of $16.5bn rescue by IMF

Times: Vietnamese seek the security of gold

Bloomberg: Bank of Korea Cuts Rate by Record to Bolster Markets

Reuters: Home sales rise but prices fall

October 24

FT: Landlords face licensing in rental shake-up

FT: Rightmove axes jobs

FT: Lending to non-financial business plunges

FT: Mortgage approvals down 57%

FT: Fed takes $2.7bn paper loss on Bear Stearns

Marketwatch: Existing-home sales jump to 13-month high

October 23

Times: Sterling and UK shares battered as Gordon Brown utters 'recession'

Times: Governor gives pound an extra pounding

Property Week: Commercial real estate transaction volumes down 60% compared to 2007

Wall Street Journal: Foreclosure Filings Rise 71%

October 22

FT: Australian inflation hits 17-year high

FT: Fed offers $540bn to prop up money funds

FT: UK plans £3bn loan for Iceland

FT: Pound plunges as King warns on recession

Reuters: Wachovia has $23.9 billion loss on writeoff, mortgages

Marketwatch: If 2008 was a record year for mortgages entering foreclosure, 2009 could look even worse

Times: The buy-to-let battle is on

October 21

FT: ING stresses conservative business model

FT: Iceland to announce $6bn IMF-led rescue

FT: Brown set to borrow more

FT: Bernanke backs new stimulus package

FT: French banks get cash injection

Marketwatch: British home asking prices down 4.9% annually

FT: Fear that mortgage lending will be negative

Property Week: 600% increase in property services firms hit by ‘critical problems’

New York Times: Urged to Lend, Banks Sit on Bailout Cash

October 18-19-20

FT: Banks resist pressure on repossessions

FT: UK companies in distress double

October 17

FT: Treasury plan pushes up US mortgage rates

FT: FTSE hits 5-year low

FT: Millions of loan applications rejected

Marketwatch: Housing starts fall 6% to 17-year low in September

Marketwatch: With mortgage money harder to get, sellers provide financing

Mortgage Strategy: SALE-AND-RENT-BACK COULD LEAVE HOME OWNERS £30K WORSE OFF

October 16

FT: Run on Russian bank heightens fears

FT: How buy-to-let turned into a mug’s game

FT: Nationwide refuses to pass on full rate cut

New York Times: Losses at Citi, Merrill; Swiss Banks Get Funds

Reuters: GM to lay off 1,500 hourly workers as demand slows

October 15

FT: Housebuilders resort to risky incentives

FT: Bellway house sales at lowest ebb in spite of incentives

FT: UK inflation soars to highest rate in 16 years

Times: 10,000 jobs go as crunch hits the public sector

Property Week: Seven years until homes regain their 2007 values, says Knight Frank

Times: Q&A - The great bank bail out

Reuters: Dow loses 733 after data feeds recession worry

October 14

FT: Spain provides up to €100bn of bank guarantees

FT: Q&A: What the bail-outs mean for you

Times: President Bush poised to follow UK with $250bn seizure of bank stakes

Mortgage Solutions: Transactions per surveyor now just one a week

Mortgage Solutions: Mortgage lending hits record low in August

Property Week: Housebuilder Bellway suffers £200m profit loss

Property Week: Central London take up and investment falls by a third

October 11-12-13

Marketwatch: U.K. banks may unveil capital plans Monday

Marketwatch: Germany readies its own bank bailout plan

FT: Housebuilding woes continue

Times: Royal Bank of Scotland under state control

FT: UK to inject £39bn into banks

FT: Australia and NZ launch bank safeguard plan

Marketwatch: European central banks to offer unlimited dollar liquidity

Marketwatch: U.S. stock indexes leap 11%; Dow industrials up 936 points, biggest one-day jump ever

October 10

FT: Giulio Tremonti: A critic demands a new Bretton Woods

FT: Wall Street in biggest fall since 1987 crash

FT: Interbank lending not freed by rate cuts

FT: Housing: US mortgage woes in a class of their own

Marketwatch: Nikkei slumps to end week with 24% loss

Times: International crisis meeting as Dow Jones plummets below 9,000

FT: Aviva reassures on solvency

New York Times: Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial system

Property Week: Game over for highly leveraged property deals/span>

Propetry Week: City sales suffer as global banking turmoil progresses

Property Week: Shares in CB Richard Ellis plunge 37% in a week

Times: Is it the end of gazundering?

Times: Mortgages go back to borrowing basics - Prepare yourself for the return of old-school lending

New York Times: Morgan Stanley Under Assault

Marketwatch: U.S. stocks plunge 6-7% again in afternoon trade

Marketwatch: Dow industrials, S&P 500 suffer steepest weekly losses on record

Reuters: Oil prices dropped more than 10 percent on Friday and touched 13-month lows in a global flight from risk amid concerns of a worldwide recession

October 9

New York Times: Third-biggest single-session point decline leaves Dow industrials 40% below year-ago peak

Property Week: House prices fall by 12.4% in a year, finds Halifax index

FT: Britain’s largest banks were preparing on Wednesday to boost their capital reserves after the government launched a dramatic £400bn rescue plan to restore confidence among financial institutions and avert a severe economic slowdown

FT: Robert Tchenguiz, the property entrepreneur, lost £1bn in just 24 hours after being forced to offload his stakes in J Sainsbury and Mitchells & Butlers as the fallout of the Icelandic banking crisis hit corporate UK

FT: Asia joins in global rate cuts

FT: Japan pledges to act as Nikkei falls 9.4%

FT: IMF sees greatest shock since 1930s

FT: Problem loans nearly triple in US

FT: Rising CDS action increases the strain

FT: Fed offers AIG fresh $37.8bn injection

FT: Trading suspended in Jakarta

Times: Lenders pull plug on top mortgage deals

Reuters: Oil hits 12-month low, demand outweighs OPEC

Reuters: GM shares drop to 58-year low, global risks eyed

October 8

FT: Debt binge takes toll on Australian banks

FT: Bank crisis Q&A

FT: Markets slide despite rate cuts

FT: Fed to start buying commercial paper

FT: Moscow to pump $37bn into biggest state institutions

Times: Fed paves way for rate cut as IMF says rapid and decisive global action needed to stem crisis

Times: Savers left in limbo as Icesave freezes deposits

Times: Spain became the latest European country last night to announce a unilateral rescue package, while Iceland received a €4 billion loan from Russia

Marketwatch: The U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks moved in concert Wednesday to slash key interest rates as part of an ongoing effort to quell financial turmoil that has threatened to flatten the international economy

Mortgage Solutions: Halifax and Barclays lead the way following cut

Wall Street Journal: Housing Pain Gauge: Nearly 1 in 6 Owners 'Under Water'

Wall Street Journal: Citigroup is largely exiting the wholesale mortgage business, a step that many rival banks took last year

Marketwatch: Pending home sales index rises 7.4% in August

October 7

FT: Markets routed in global sell-off

FT: BofA to raise $10bn in capital

FT: FTSE 100 in biggest fall since Black Monday

FT: Wall St plummets to four-year lows

FT: RBS down after counterparty rating cut by S&P

Times: The Bric stock markets crumbled yesterday as investors in emerging market stocks — including Brazil, Russia, India and China — suffered their worst one-day losses in history

Property Week: MFI in administration but more than 100 shops saved

October 4-5-6

Marketwatch: U.S. stocks close down 3% to 4%, with Dow recovering from 800-point drop

Times: Stricken Iceland sends out financial SOS

Real Estate Journal: Developer Sells Land Dirt Cheap

Real Estate Journal: Businesses Vacate at Fastest Pace in Years, Pressuring Landlords and Their Lenders

Marketwatch: Germany moves to rescue Hypo Real Estate

Times: German savings pledge raises stakes for Gordon Brown

October 3

Marketwatch: U.S. stocks finish sharply lower; indexes off 7%-10% for the week

FT: UK house price plunge worst since 1991

FT: Investors pull out of US commercial paper

FT: GuestInvest goes into administration

Times: Taylor Wimpey seeks to reassure over £1.7 bn debts

Reuters: Job cuts accelerate, recession fears rise

Reuters: Wells bids $15 billion for Wachovia; scuffles with Citi

October 2

FT: Senate backs rescue plan by wide margin

Times: France seeks €300bn rescue fund for Europe

Times: Wholesale price of electricity surges amid fear of supply shortfall

New York Times: 36 hours that shook Wall Street

October 1

FT: Wealthy investors hoard bullion

FT: Investors start fresh gold rush

FT: Fortis-ABN uncertainty hurts RBS

FT: FTSE sees worst monthly fall since 1987

FT: The $54,000bn credit derivatives market faces its biggest test in October as billions of dollars worth of contracts on now-defaulted derivatives on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual are settled

Times: Tesco plans an assault on Britain's crisis-ridden banking industry by offering mortgages and current accounts to shoppers for the first time

FT: Hedge funds face worst year

Telegraph: Barratt has slashed 43 per cent off the price of some new homes as the global financial crisis takes an ever-increasing toll on construction and manufacturing

Property Week: Irish property market crippled by lack of bank funding says CBRE

Property Week: West End investment plummets by 40%

Property Week: Central London investment deal volumes continue to fall

Times: The six safest places for your savings

Times: Hundreds of mortgage deals disappear as interbank freeze bites

Reuters: Chrysler's September U.S. sales fall 33 percent

Reuters: FDIC seeking temporary unlimited Treasury loans