Will real estate bubbles again sink the global economy?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Success is a ladder that cannot be climbed with your hands in your pocket.

 

June 24, 2014 10:00AM ET by Philip Pilkington   @pilkingtonphil

M In mid-June the International Monetary Fund’s Global Housing Watch warned that we might be seeing the development of another unsustainable global housing bubble. Reflecting a new sense of awareness on the part of economists that asset price bubbles are real and can cause major damage to the economies in which they inflate, the IMF published four key charts on its website (see slide show below) clearly indicating that home prices were substantially above trend in at least nine countries. Do we have reason to be alarmed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The IMF says the bubble economies are Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Belgium (and possibly Austria). All these countries have house-price-to-income ratios and house-price-to-rent ratios that are well above trend. These indicators suggest that people’s purchasing power is not catching up with house price and rent increases — both signs that property price valuations might be out of line with fundamentals.

What does this mean for the global economy? While high house prices might redistribute income from first-time buyers to people who already own property, which would be unfair, the most important aspect of any housing bubble is the threat that it poses to economic growth if it pops. How housing bubbles stimulate economic activity is quite straightforward, working through two channels.

Rising house prices make people who own houses feel wealthier. Because they see the value of their property go up, they assume that they have more money, and this leads them to spend more on consumer purchases. In really crazy property bubbles, people may even remortgage their homes and spend the money on consumer goods, effectively using their properties like ATMs. Economists call this channel the wealth effect.

The other channel through which housing bubbles lead to economic growth is far more direct. When house prices are rising, investors build more houses because they think it will be profitable to do so. This relationship is known in economics as Tobin’s Q for new dwelling investment. Building more houses leads to people being employed to build the houses and generates revenue for suppliers of construction materials. This is the key channel through which house price bubbles generate economic growth and employment. It is also the key way that a sharp decline in property prices can lead to a recession.

The bursting of the U.S. housing bubble in 2006 and ’07 led to a financial crisis and a worldwide recession. The financial crisis began when many of the mortgages that the banks had extended went sour as people found themselves unable to make repayments. The Great Recession, on the other hand, was more directly caused by the fall in property investment. If the IMF is correct that the countries it highlights are bubble economies, then we need to understand what sort of impact might be felt on the world economy if the bubbles pop.

According to World Bank figures, together the nine bubble economies made up just under 15.5 percent of world GDP in 2012. By contrast, the United States accounted for a little less than 22.4 percent of global GDP that year. We should add Ireland and Spain to the latter figure because those countries also had substantial housing bubbles that burst in 2006 and ’07 and may have contributed to the worldwide downturn; so the bubble economies that crashed the world economy in 2006 and ’07 accounted for almost a quarter of world GDP.

Clearly the countries that the IMF thinks might be bubble economies are not as important to the global economy as are the U.S., Ireland and Spain. That said, the IMF’s bubble economies still account for a substantial slice of world GDP, and if they take as big a hit as the three countries that did in 2006 and ’07, this could spell bad news for the global economy. This is especially true if we consider the weakness of the current global recovery. A simultaneous bursting of housing bubbles in countries that account for over 15 percent of world GDP could have ripple effects and knock the global economy off balance.

The IMF’s bubble economies are not as reliant on property investment as the economies that blew up in 2006 and ’07. At the height of the bubble then, property investment in those economies accounted for just over 7 percent of their GDP. By contrast, today property investment accounts for 4.0 to 4.5 percent of the GDP of the IMF bubble economies. This means that, should the bottom fall out of these markets and property investment take a hit, the effects on economic activity are unlikely to be as bad as those seen in the wake of the financial crisis.

The graph below shows the growth rate of investment in property in the bubble economies and the post-bubble economies. Investment due to the housing bubble of the 2000s began to fall off in 2005 and then went firmly negative before recovering somewhat in 2012. Property investment in the IMF’s bubble economies declined sharply after 2006, recovered briefly and seems to be falling once again.

The chart suggests that there was never really a second investment boom in property in the IMF’s bubble economies. This means that although prices have continued to rise in these countries, they have not been accumulating large supplies of property in their property markets. While a substantial decline in house prices in these economies will probably hurt property investment, it seems unlikely that this would be as severe as that experienced by the U.S., Ireland and Spain beginning in 2006 and ’07. A stone hits the ground harder the higher you throw it, and property investment does not have as far to fall in the IMF’s bubble economies now as it did in the bubbles of 2006 and ’07.

Compared with the economies whose property markets crashed then, the IMF’s bubble economies account for less of the world’s GDP, are less reliant on property investment for their economic growth and have been experiencing less of a surge in property investment than the U.S., Ireland and Spain did before their crash. This implies that should house prices fall in the bubble countries, the impact on the global economy will be substantially less than the earthquake felt after the 2006 and ’07 collapse. Nevertheless, there will still likely be significant effects for the world economy and even more so for the bubble economies. Given the weak state of the present global economic recovery, such a collapse may be enough to tip the world back into recession.

Philip Pilkington is a London-based economist and member of the Political Economy Research Group at Kingston University. He runs the blog Fixing the Economists.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America’s editorial policy.

READ IT ALL:

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/global-real-estatebubbleimf.html

A little about me and my expertise – video

                    

commercial / investment real estate / Arizona land specialist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPs3kpKR4nY

 

I go to great heights to sell or purchase your land

http://walter-unger.com/?p=10118

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Phoenix,_Arizona_history

3

Facts of Arizona – year 1848 to 2013

http://walter-unger.com/?p=9507

 

4.

Feel free to contact Walter regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities and needs, your property or your Investment Needs for Comercial Investment Properties in Phoenix.

 

 

View my listings and my profile at:

http://www.loopnet.com/profile/14101172900/Walter-Unger-CCIM/Listings/

 

www.Walter-Unger.com

 

What is a CCIM?

 

Join My Mailing List

 

 

Please go to my web-site and get all the newsflashes and updates in Commercial Investment Real Estate in Phoenix and Commercial Investment Properties in Phoenix daily

 

www.walter-unger.com

 

 

Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn.

http://lnkd.in/bezpJ8t

 

Follow me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/ungerccim

 

Follow me on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Walterunger

 

 

Follow Me on Google+

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/114560883588623379451/

 

Walter Unger CCIM, CCSS, CCLS

I am a successful Commercial Investment Real Estate Broker in Arizona now for 20 years and I worked with banks and their commercial REO properties for 3 years. I am also a commercial landspecialist in Phoenix and a Landspecialist in Arizona.

 

WHETHER YOU LEASE OR OWN

NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO EXPAND, UPGRADE OR INVEST.

 

we are at on the a rise of the cycle in Commercial Real Estate.  so there is only one way and it’s called we are going up and now is the time for you to expand, upgrade or invest in Commercial Properties in Phoenix.  The prices on deals I may get you will not be around forever.

 

If you have any questions about Commercial Investment Properties in Phoenix or Commercial Investment Properties in Arizona,  I will gladly sit down with you and share my expertise and my professional opinion in Commercial Properties in Phoenix or Commercial Properties in Arizona with you.Obviously I am also in this to make money, but it could be a win-win situation for all of us. 

 

Please reply by e-mail walterunger@ccim.net or call me on my cell 520-975-5207 or Office:480-948-5554

 

www.Walter-Unger.com

 

Thank You

Walter

Walter Unger CCIM

Associate Broker,  West USA Commercial Real Estate Advisers

7077 E. Marilyn Road, Bldg 4, Suite 130

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Cell:      520-975-5207   

Office :  480-948-5554

Fax: (480-658-1172  

walterunger@ccim.net

 

View my listings and my profile at:

http://www.loopnet.com/Profile/14101172900/Walter-Unger-CCIM/

 

www.Walter-Unger.com             

 

a little about me and my expertise – video

 

commercial-investment real estate adviser-land specialist

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPs3kpKR4nY

 

What is a CCIM?

 

 

Delivering the New Standard of Excellence in Commercial Real Estate 

 

  • Commercial Real Estate Scottsdale
  • Commercial Real Estate Phoenix
  • Commercial Real Estate Arizona
  • Commercial Investment Properties Phoenix
  • Commercial Investment Properties Scottsdale
  • Commercial Investment Properties Arizona
  • Land Specialist Arizona
  • Arizona Land Specialist
  • Land Specialist Phoenix
  • Phoenix Land Specialist
  • Land For Sale Phoenix
  • Land for sale Arizona
  • Commercial Properties For Sale Phoenix
  • Commercial Real Estate Sales Phoenix
  • Commercial Properties Phoenix
  • Commercial Properties Arizona
  • Commercial Land Specialist Phoenix
  • Commercial Land Phoenix
  • Multifamily land Phoenix
  • Retail Land Phoenix
  • Industrial Land Phoenix
  • Land Commercial Phoenix
  • Land Retail Phoenix
  • Land Industrial Phoenix
  • Land Multifamily Phoenix
  • Industrial Land for sale Phoenix
  • Land Industrial
  • P
  • Investment Real Estate

 

Disclaimer of Liability

The information in this blog-newsletter is for general guidance only, and does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services, investment advice, or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional tax, accounting, legal, or other competent advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional adviser who has been provided with all pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation. Tax articles in this e-newsletter are not intended to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding accuracy-related penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. The information is provided “as is,” with no assurance or guarantee of completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of the information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose.