Posted on 01/13/2013 7:35:29 PM PST by Lorianne
Could Sweden or Finland be the scene of the next European financial crisis? It is actually far likelier than most people realize. While the world has been laser-focused on the woes of the heavily-indebted PIIGS nations for the last couple of years, property markets in Northern and Western European countries have been bubbling up to dizzying new heights in a repeat performance of the very property bubbles that caused the global financial crisis in the first place.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
This bears more investigating, thanks.
It is a property bubble ONLY IF their banks are handing out sub-prime mortgages. Only if they have similar laws and institutions as Fanny & Freddie. Only if their politicians are threatening the banks of serious investigations unless the banks grant mortgages to people who can never make the payments.
Note for many decades out properties kept on ascending merrily along, year after year with no problem. Only when the banks were blackmailed into giving out sub-prime loans the bubble burst.
I’m not sure about that — people buying second homes as investments are also a root cause of bubbles — at least in Spain
Lots of Russian money going into houses in Finland.
They keep a low profile in Russia and have their resort get-a-way in Finland. Lakeside property is in great demand. Many lakes to choose from.
Certainly possible that its wealthy people from other nations buying there. A whole bunch of money has fled Spain,Greece and France to name a few.
I don’t know about Greece or Portugal, first hand. But I know something about Spain, first hand. My daughter was enrolled in a University there this year and is going back to teach English. Spain definitely overbuilt residential housing, on record number of mortgages.
How could people suddenly afford above average expansion in the mortgage market? Did payrolls jump above average? Did productivity jump above average? I don’t think so. It was the same old game, loosen requirements to obtain a mortgage. The banks and lenders in US and elsewhere were not afraid to lend mortgage money because they had seen housing creep up year after, decade after decade.
If the mortgage payer defaulted, no problem...sell the house to the next buyer at a HIGHER PRICE! The game burst when the sub-prime defaults exceeded money coming in from sales.
That is how all Ponzi schemes end.
I shop sometimes at Winco food store because they have bins where I find stuff I can not at other stores. It is a discount food chain. There are not many wealthy people shopping there. There are high end stores for them.
The people I noticed using EBT cards do NOT look like wealthy people fleeing Spain. I can tell the difference between a wealthy person from Spain and a illegal from Mexico.
I shop sometimes at Winco food store because they have bins where I find bulk stuff I can not get at other stores. It is a discount food chain. There are not many wealthy people shopping there. There are high end stores for them.
The people I noticed using EBT cards do NOT look like wealthy people fleeing Spain. I can tell the difference between a wealthy person from Spain and a illegal from Mexico.
What does Winco have to do with a housing bubble in Europe?
I may have replied in the wrong thread, sorry!
-) It’s fine
He also said Barcelona sees itself as the financial/commercial center of the country and wants independence from Spain because they don't want to fund the mess anymore.
Stockholm's been in a bubble for a long time. There isn't a ton of new construction. (commies love to limit housing) They mortgage their apartments with, like 100 year mortgages too.
Barcelona is indeed a nice city. It was refurbished quite a bit for the Olympic games held there a few years back. The church of Gaudi is unbelievable! We had a day long excursion in the city while on a Mediterranean cruise. Next Medi cruise we will fly to Barcelona and begin cruise there instead of our last cruise which sailed from England. I noticed Barcelona has a very good cruise terminal.
Barcelona is full of very nice apartment buildings. Each one has a different facade and interesting architecture. This was 4.5 years ago when Euro was at high point and Spain was doing well.
They've really loosened the requirements for citizenship by buying property at the present time. I forget the minimum investment but it wasn't too much.
If I could speak Spanish, I would consider buying property on the southern coast. Cadiz is a nice little town on coast. My daughter went to university there on an exchange student program. But alas, too old to learn a new language lol.
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