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Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 
Sounds familiar
Times: Mortgage rescue at the ready as property slump gets even worse
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, and Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, are planning to announce an emergency “mortgage rescue” package next week. Under the plans councils will be encouraged to offer low-income families at risk of repossession the chance to sell a stake of their houses in return for financial help. First-time buyers will also be given council-backed assistance with deposits and town halls will be given extra money to buy up empty unsold new-build properties from developers. A more radical proposal under which councils would have competed as mortgage lenders has been vetoed by Darling.
What recession?
FT: Stocks rally on surprise US GDP boost
Woes of the US sub-prime meltdown have been with us for the best part of 18-24 months but the US is still resolute in not tipping into a technical recession. It's fair to say that the US is certainly not out of the woods yet but this data will provide a much needed boost to an economy that many doomsayers proclaim as being on its knees.
Interesting development across the Irish Sea
4NI.co.uk: NI Developer Cuts House Prices By 40%
A Northern Ireland building firm has slashed its house prices by almost 40%, in a fresh bid to inject life into the ailing property market. Fraser Homes has trimmed £90,000 off the price of its semi-detached properties in Glengormley, reducing the price from £229,500 to £139,950.
Dont be fooled by
CNN: The economic growth mirage
Sure, the economy grew at a decent clip in the second quarter. But economists say the gain may be temporary and warn of tougher times ahead.
Lehman to lay off 1,500
CNN: Lehman to lay off 1,500
The troubled investment bank's plans to shed up to 6% of its workforce amid a slumping stock price, concerns about its future.
Brace Brace Brace for more bad news on petrol prices...
CNN: Gulf oil braces for Gustav
With Tropical Storm Gustav setting its sights on the Gulf of Mexico, oil facilities in the region are facing their first major threat since 2005, when Hurricanes Rita and Katrina knocked out nearly every barrel of oil production and sent prices soaring to then-record levels.
My local EA is selling more than that!
Times Online: Sales at Taylor Wimpey sites slump to half a house a week
Taylor Wimpey is selling less than half a house a week on each of its sites despite offering incentives with its new homes, it emerged yesterday. See also: http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/taylor_wimpey.pdf
Someone deport this guy
Telegraph: MPC dove Blanchflower to vote for rate cut
Blanchflower indicated he would be calling for interest rates to be cut by more than 25 basis points at next week's Monetary Policy Committee meeting. Mr Blanchflower said his earlier forecast that house prices could fall by 30pc was looking optimistic and that the jobless total could soon touch two million as construction companies and banks lay off workers. The US-based academic, who has called for lower interest rates for 10 months in a row, said the UK could learn from Federal Reserve's prompt action and interest rates should be much lower than 5pc as a matter of urgency. "I've obviously voted on quite a number of occasions now for small cuts but we need to act and we probably need to act in larger amounts than that."
Lex is a big bear - a BIG bear!
FT - Lex: Bleak Houses
The pace of collapse reflects, in order of significance, the ludicrous valuations ahead of last October’s peak, a fundamental shift in buyer psychology, and credit withdrawal by lenders. The average house price is now 11.5 per cent down from the summit in nominal terms. Economists forecasting 35 per cent peak-to-trough nominal falls, once outliers, are rapidly finding themselves rejoining mainstream opinion.
The fall is now a crash!!
Aboutproperty.co.uk: When does a fall become a crash?
The torrent of negative news for the UK property market continued unabated today, leading analysts to question – is this now a house price crash? What's the evidence? Figures from the Nationwide released today illustrate the scale of the problem now facing the market. Average property prices have fallen across the UK by 10.5 per cent over the course of the last year, and what's more the pace of decline is accelerating. While prices fell by an already dramatic 1.5 per cent in July, this accelerated to 1.9 per cent in August, with activity "very subdued", according to Nationwide.
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