We caught up with an old friend from the United States last night. He was last in Australia in 2001. He couldn’t believe how expensive things in Australia had become. Even taking the massive swing in exchange rates into account, on a one-for-one basis the price difference is huge.
February 10th, 2012 | Greg Canavan | 9 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "Australian housing"
Welcome to the House of Debt
Aussies have bid up the price of houses to absurd levels using debt. The debt that the mainstream will tell you doesn’t matter. But it does.
December 10th, 2011 | Nickolai Hubble | 4 comments | Continued
Trickle of Chinese Money into Australian Housing and Equities Small Compared to Growth in Bank Lending
Chinese bank lending surged by over US$1.35 trillion in 2009, according to Shaun Rein at Forbes. Much of that money went into stocks. And a lot of it went into Shanghai and Beijing real estate. Whether China bought itself a bubble is a very good question. One important point is that Chinese lending is based on savings…and isn’t borrowed (in U.S. fashion).
January 12th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Can Governments and Central Banks Prevent More Credit Writedowns?
Are we changing our tune, then, about what to expect from markets? Not one bit. But the question now is timing. The collapse of 2008 was so severe because of the sudden reduction in leverage in the financial sector. As assets fell in value, the most highly leveraged firms (or lenders who raised money by selling debt) went out of business.
October 12th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 34 comments | Continued
Underlying Demand During a Housing Shortage
That is clever to suggest that when rates rise people will have to find another way to say that houses are affordable. But we reckon when rates rise, as they eventually must, a lot of new home buyers will find out that access to cheap credit does not make a house affordable. It just makes the amount of debt you owe to the bank a lot larger.
September 30th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 41 comments | Continued
Glenn Stevens Says Australia’s Economy Has Been Travelling Better Than Others
We’ll see about that. Stocks are certainly pricing in a profit recovery (about which we have our doubts). But Mr. Stevens also had a bit to say about credit markets and balance sheets, in comments that were not as widely reported as his comments on Australian housing. More on housing in a second.
July 29th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 25 comments | Continued
