Germany – Troubling Trend: Shrinking Population Triggers Explosion in Vacant Homes
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: While home prices in Germany's urban areas are skyrocketing, the opposite trend can be seen in less densely settled regions. There, shrinking populations are creating housing surpluses and vacant homes in a trend that experts say will soon spread across the country as its population grows grayer.

For now, things in the Altenwalde district of Cuxhaven, a port city of 52,000 residents in northeastern Germany located near the mouth of the Elbe River, still look prim and proper in that sort of Playmobil tidiness that Germans love. The little houses are packed in close together into the kind of orderly settlement one can find in thousands of places across Germany.

One-third of all of the residential structures in western Germany are single- or two-family homes built between 1950 and 1978. These were the dream houses meant to offer their owners peace, quiet and financial security. But now Germany is undergoing a generational change. There are fewer young people and more old ones, and grandma's little house has gone from being a wise investment to a money loser.

One can already see the signs of this tectonic shift in Altenwalde. It isn't everywhere, but it still can't be missed. There are houses with empty window panes, closed shutters, empty driveways and overgrown gardens. These are symptoms of being vacant or of only being inhabited by a single, usually elderly person who cannot afford to, doesn't have the energy to or simply doesn't care to keep things up. Indeed, demographic change has arrived in Germany's famously idyllic suburbs. » | Christian Tröster | Friday, November 09, 2012

House Prices Drop as Lenders Restrict Lending, Say Estate Agents
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: House prices dropped during the past three months and will continue to do so, surveyors said.

The latest housing survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that 28 per cent more estate agents reported house prices falling to the lowest level since the beginning of the year.

Ian Perry, a RICS spokesman, said: “Buyer interest in purchasing property remains flat across much of the country and there is little sign of this changing any time soon. “Uncertainty over the economic outlook remains as important as the availability of mortgage finance in depressing demand. On the other hand, the appetite to rent is continuing to grow. And, with little new supply coming onto the lettings market, the cost of renting is increasing and will continue to do so.” » | Tuesday, June 14, 2011

US House Price Drop Accelerates
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: US house prices have suffered their biggest quarterly fall since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, underlining the scale of the headwinds still facing the world's biggest economy.

Average house prices slumped 3pc in the first three months of this year, a decline that pushed the number of homeowners in negative equity – where a mortgage is higher than the value of a property – to 28pc from 22pc a year earlier, according to new research from Zillow, a major US property website.

American homeowners are enduring the first national drop in prices on record after the most recent boom drove up values and fuelled a boom in homebuilding. Average prices are 33pc below the peak they reached in July 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Schiller Index.

As in Britain, the outlook for prices remains uncertain.

That excess of supply has left repossessed homes accounting for between 30pc and 40pc of current sales, which is in turn driving prices lower.

"Home value declines are currently equal to those we experienced during the darkest days of the housing recession," said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. "Rising foreclosures and high negative equity rates make it almost certain that we won't see a bottom in home values until 2012 or later." Continue reading and comment » | Richard Blackden, US Business Editor | Monday, May 09, 2011

United Kingdom: House Prices Are Falling at a Record Rate
DAILY MAIL: House prices are falling in many parts of the country at their fastest pace since records began in 1978, a report has warned.

Across England and Wales, prices are dropping in every region.

And the speed of the decline is at record levels in East Anglia, the South-West, Yorkshire, Humberside and the East Midlands.

The report, from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, is the latest to confirm that the decade-long house price boom is over.

Soaring numbers of homes are being put up for sale but failing to find a buyer.

The average estate agency has 92 homes on its books, the highest level for a decade. Over the last year, the average number of unsold properties has risen 49 per cent.

Potential buyers are being put off by the fear that a property which they buy today will be worth less tomorrow.

Other would-be buyers are struggling to find a mortgage as banks and building societies introduce more stringent lending criteria. House prices are falling at record rate confirming the end of 10-year boom >>> By Becky Barrow

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