A while ago Robert Campbell warned us (further down the forum) that it looks like there could be a bubble in housing prices - and that bubble will burst. Here's his earlier post....

http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=13231

I just came across a recent article from The Economist magazine - saying the same thing. In the 2nd last paragraph of their article, The Economist says:

This survey will conclude that the latest housing boom has inflated bubbles in several countries, notably America, Australia, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. Within the next year or so those bubbles are likely to burst, leading to falls in average real house prices of 15-20% in America and 30% or more elsewhere over the next few years, in line with average price declines during past housing-market busts. This time, however, with inflation so low, house prices will fall more sharply in money terms than they did in the past. In Britain as a whole, for example, average nominal house prices are likely to drop by 20-25%, and in London by much more. Significant numbers of owners may be left with homes worth less than their mortgages—especially as the proportion of owner-occupiers with mortgages exceeding 80% of the value of their homes is higher now than it was in the previous bust in the early 1990s.

This could be something to be concerned about if you are a property investor....

I've linked to the full article below....

(There are also related articles on the links on the right of the article, under the heading "Related Items: In This Survey".)

- Dien


"House of cards" - from The Economist magazine