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The following news stories are those which are most important for understanding the house price crash and the impact on house prices going forward...
August 31
£9bn consumer debts written off by banks
Sub-prime lender says problems are on scale of Great Depression
Barclays forced to arrange £1.6bn BoE emergency loan
August 30
How much will the credit crunch hurt the world economy?
Freddie Mac posted a 45 per cent plunge in second-quarter profits on Thursday, fuelling market fears about the US housing downturn and a liquidity crunch
Britain's Housing Lenders Tighten Subprime Credit
August 29
Financial Times: SIVs set for $43bn asset ‘firesales’
August 28
US house prices fall worst for 20 years
Serious Credit Collapse Could Strengthen Dollar and Hit Gold
Housing prices across the U.S. fell 3.2% in the second quarter from a year earlier -- the largest decline in at least 20 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index
August 27
Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. fell in July for a fifth consecutive month, adding to the inventory of unsold properties and showing the housing slump that triggered a collapse in credit markets will drag on
August 26
The median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950
A Psychology Lesson From the Markets
August 24
In a clear sign that the credit crunch is still affecting the nation's largest financial institutions, the Federal Reserve agreed this week to bend key banking regulations to help out Citigroup and Bank of America
Worries over Bank of China's exposure to sub-prime mortgages sent its shares sharply down overnight
August 23
Northern Rock initiates moves to retreat from UK sub-prime mortgages by escalating interest rates on fixed-rate loans
Lehman Closes Subprime Unit and Lays Off 1,200
August 22
The European Central Bank announced it would add an additional €40bn into the three-month money market where interest rates have shot higher during the recent financial turmoil
Credit crunch takes toll as HBOS steps in at Grampian
First Magnus Financial, one of the largest independent U.S. mortgage lenders, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, the latest home loan provider to collapse as the housing market slumps and credit crisis widens. It said it laid off most of its nearly 6,000 employees
HBOS bails out own fund as effect of credit crisis spreads
August 21
The number of home repossessions in the US soared in July, figures suggest, underlining the woes facing the sector
HBOS will provide emergency funding to Grampian, its $35bn credit investment vehicle, as credit markets prove too costly
Woes mount as Countrywide dumps 500 jobs
The Bank of England said its emergency lending facility was tapped for the first time since the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis prompted other central banks to inject liquidity into financial markets
The $1.1 trillion market for commercial paper used to buy assets from mortgages to car loans has seized up just as more than half of that amount comes due in the next 90 days, according to the Federal Reserve
THORNBURG Mortgage said overnight it had sold $US20.5 billion ($25 bilion) of assets as it seeks to weather the financial storm buffeting the troubled US housing industry
August 20
London house prices fell for the first time in a year this month, a sign higher interest rates are cooling Britain's property boom
Victoria Mortgages has repriced its entire mortgage product range, with near-prime products rising by 1.25% and sub-prime products going up by 2.5%...The lender cites the global liquidity 'crunch' of the last few weeks has now created a position, "where there is effectively no bid for UK sub-prime mortgage securitised paper"
August 17
Anxious customers jammed the phone lines and website of Countrywide Bank and crowded its branch offices to pull out their savings because of concerns about the financial problems of the mortgage lender that owns the bank
Fed Cuts Discount Rate to 5.75 Percent to Ease Credit Crunch
August 16
Spanish fund March Monetario Dinamico has limited withdrawals for its around 3,000 investors due to knock-on effects from the world-wide credit squeeze
Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, borrowed the entire $11.5 billion available in bank credit lines as the global financial crisis curbed access to short-term financing
Moody's Investors Service has cut its debt rating for Countrywide Financial Corp. to the lowest rung of investment-grade and said it may cut again
August 15
Countrywide tumbles 19% on financing rumors
Countrywide Falls; Merrill Cites Bankruptcy Prospect
Northern Rock tumbled over 9 percent to hit a 3-year low on Wednesday as fresh signs of credit market deterioration sparked concern over its earnings and speculation it could issue a fresh profit warning
August 13
Goldman Sachs is to use $2bn of its own money to bail out its Global Equity Opportunities hedge fund in an embarrassing admission that its highly regarded computerised funds malfunctioned last week. The investment bank has raised a further $1bn from outside investors to support the $3.6bn GEO fund, which lost about $1.5bn when computer models failed to predict market turbulence
August 10
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s $8 billion Global Alpha hedge fund has fallen 26 percent so far this year, a decline that may prompt more investors to withdraw their money, according to people familiar with the fund
August 9
A wing of German giant Deutsche Bank yanked its UK sub-prime mortgages from the market, adding to fears of a worldwide credit squeeze
ECB injects €95bn to help markets
BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, said it froze three asset-backed securities funds because it's no longer possible to ``fairly'' value their holdings, as concern over U.S. subprime mortgage losses roils credit markets
August 8
Toll Brothers' home-building revenue slips 21%
August 6
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. filed for bankruptcy, becoming the second-biggest residential lender in the U.S. to close down this year
August 4
Stocks Fall Sharply Amid Credit Fears
August 3
Wells Fargo & Co, Wachovia Corp and other lenders are limiting mortgages to some of their more creditworthy borrowers as worries about U.S. homeowner defaults widen
The number of home repossessions rose by almost an annual 30 percent in the first half of the year, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders published on Friday. Repossessions rose 17.6 percent on the previous six months to 14,000 at a time when house price inflation is still running at double-digit levels
August 2
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. plans to halt operations, becoming the second-biggest residential lender to fail this year as bad loans spread to people with good credit records
August 1
Signs that the crisis in the US subprime mortgage market is spreading to higher-quality mortgage loans contributed to a dramatic sell-off in credit and equity markets this week, as lenders reported significantly lower second-quarter earnings and investors ran aground on mortgage-related losses
The subprime virus has gone global. Starting as a localised outbreak in the US market for risky subprime mortgages, it has spread into the supposedly safer “Alt-A” tier and even into prime mortgages. Meanwhile, it has crossed into other loan species – particularly leveraged lending, where ballooning spreads have rattled the market and left banks holding big chunks of debt
Mortgage exit fees on scrapheap
FTSE falls sharply as credit fears return
