EU & US House Prices Still Showing Little Sign of Recovery

According to the Economist, the remarkable house prices that preceded the worldwide financial crisis still show little sign of recovery. In the United States however, there are now signs of life, even though the situation is still grim. Prices rose in the first quarter of 2013, though the pace of growth may well peter off due to rising mortgage rates.

Likewise, British house prices showed some improvement between 2009 and 2011 until the pace of growth slackened in early 2013. Unfortunately for Britain’s neighbour, Ireland, the catastrophic property collapse shows very little sign of recovering. The bursting of the Spanish property bubble has also proved devastating with little prospect of improvement in the near future.

Even though it has been somewhat absent from international headlines, the Netherlands is beginning to struggle with falling house prices as well – the country is sitting on 650 billion euros of mortgage loans and many properties are worth 25 percent less than they were before the onset of the financial crisis.