The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008

The housing crisis of 2008 can trace its origins back to the stock market trends of the mid- to late 90 's. During a period of extended growth in the stock market, increased individual wealth among investors led to generalized increases in spending, including in the housing market. With more disposable income in the pockets of consumers, the demand for housing increased in the late 90 's. Due to the fact that homes are large projects and their construction takes a large amount of time, the supply of homes in the market is inelastic on the short term. Because of the fixed supply of homes, as per the law of supply, which

With the consistent increase of property prices and more personal debt than ever before, we assume that there’s a housing bubble in Australia. The statistics show that from 2008 till now, property prices have been going up as a result of increased mortgage debt. When it slows down, that could cause a property crash. We are sure that there’s a housing bubble, but we cannot confirm when it will finally burst although a few area in Australia has already met a decrease of house prices. There are 3 indicators of the housing bubble in Australia.

The financial crisis that happened during 2007-09 was considered the worst financial crisis in the world since the great depression in the 1930s. It leads to a series of banking failures and also prolonged recession, which have affected millions of Americans and paralyzed the whole financial system. Although it was happened a long time ago, the side effects are still having implications for the economy now. This has become an enormously common topic among economists, hence it plays an extremely important role in the economy. There are many questions that were asked about the financial crisis, one of the most common question that dragged attention was ’’How did the government (Federal Reserve) contributed to the financial crisis?’’

6.3 TRILLION DOLLARS! This is how much the value of homes have fallen in the United States since its real estate peak back in July of 2006. After the price of houses peaked in 2006, they gradually started to decline until December 30th, 2008. This is when the Case-Shiller home price index which measured the value of homes, reported its largest price decrease in its entire history. From there we saw prices continue to decline until we hit all-time lows in 2012. The United States housing bubble burst will be talked about for years to come including many what caused it and how to prevent such occurrences in the future. Low interest rates, Housing bubble, subprime mortgages, as well as securitization all contributed to the housing market crash of 2008 and will all be explained in this paper. According to the general consensus, most people believe that the housing bubble was the main cause of the 2007-2009 economic recession in the United States of America.

Since the inflation of the United States dollar continues to rise every year, housing prices in relation to the peak of the market in 2006 are at a standstill, or even are decreasing in many cities. The housing market has fully recovered from the devastation of 2006. Currently, homes in San Francisco are worth, on average, almost 15% more than in 2008. Unfortunately, due to inflation the majority of the value in the housing market has decreased since the mortgage fallout, by 19.4% (“American House Prices”). The housing market peaked just before the collapse of 2006, mainly because banks became greedy and did not check the majority of their clients credit scores. As the time passed, banks soon realized that their plans were not unfolding as planned. The Washington Post estimated that at the time of the fallout 1 in 5 mortgage holders had below average credit. In many banks, whole empires were controlled by “subprime mortgages”. This meant homebuyers who had poor credit scores dictated the

In 2005, the market was flooded with a vast array of homes that were all selling at a low price, and this allowed people to buy and sell homes with minimal effort. Banks were being reckless with their lending, not giving enough attention to who they were giving mortgages to, as virtually anybody with a decent credit score could go to a bank and get a mortgage, sometimes without even going to see if the land and ability for development was there. This created a housing bubble in 2006, and would inevitably come back to hurt a wide range of industries, but few were as damaged as the new construction industry.

After housing prices in the United States skyrocketed, Americans and foreign investors alike rode the benefits. However, most parties involved did not anticipate the impending bubble and could not have foreseen the outcomes of its sudden burst. The burst of the housing bubble contributed to a financial crisis and recession. It was one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression and affected many sectors of the economy. Several factors such as government policy, brokerage incentives, and securitization all played key roles in the bubble’s burst. A better understanding of the housing bubble is achieved through analyzing it, a comparison with that of Canada, and the effects of the financial crisis throughout the world.

In the beginning days of the 21st century, the United States experience an increase in the price of real estate. The causes of the housing bubble were many and, even after it collapse in 2007, the causes for it creation are still under scrutiny. As parties are still blaming each other, the losing party in this crisis is the general public as they have been made responsible for it aftermath through the collectivization of the financial cost. Inquiries into the causes of the housing bubble and its eventual collapse has brought to light an ever increasing number of players responsible for its creation, some going back t the 1970s.

The current real estate strife and “market meltdown” had a number of contributors; from the over-speculation in “bubble” markets like Florida and Nevada to Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that attracted families not prepared to support the sudden increase in monthly payments. To repair the current market, give solace to homeowners not yet in foreclosure, and keep banks whole and prevent further closings takes an understanding of the factors that led to our current state, a plan to get us out of it, and a means to prevent its reoccurrence.

In 1999 the market was relatively stable and there were equal amounts of buying and selling of property. However, the market began to improve and the housing market was going up in value. People began listing their homes in the new market in order to make the most profit. The market was in a steady increase from 1999 to 2006. Although, in 2006 the market reached its peak and began to crash. The rapid fall is shown between the time frame of 2006- 2008 and culminates in 2009 when the market crashed. The prices of homes drastically decreased so people no longer wanted to sell but because of bad loans people defaulted on their mortgages and had no choice but facing foreclosure. No one wanted to sell their homes since homes were overpriced and no one wanted to buy because of the problems with the

Throughout the better part of previous decade, housing prices in the United States, especially in and around metropolitan areas and high population growth areas (such as the Southwest) saw an unprecedented rise in housing prices . In 2007, many of the financial instruments which were used to back the purchase of these properties, such as subprime and Alt-A mortgages, as well as Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), suffered a sudden and massive downturn . In hindsight, it is accepted by a wide range of economists and analysts that the huge upswing in prices and the ensuing downturn comprised a housing market bubble . Bubbles are often studied from the perspective of behavioral economics and complex systems . Many diverse economic agents, all facing the same information regarding rapid housing prices growth, can generate “irrational exuberance” within markets, leading to huge upswings in prices. Similarly, when the same economic agents begin to hear new information about the unsustainability of such a bubble, an opposing feedback loop is created. When the effect of one feedback loop begins to dominate another, we stand at the precipice of a crash .

Ever since the economic virus called “negative interest rates” scattered over European and later Japanese banks, our economic system has been the most unstable since the financial crisis of 2008. The virus, negative interest rates, is a concept in which the central bank charges interest in borrowing money and holding an account. It was brought forth in efforts to increase economic growth by giving commercial banks a tax on the large amount of reserves they hold in the bank. In other words, commercial banks’ negative charge results in the commercial banks having to pay to keep their money at the central bank.

As home prices continue to skyrocket, speculation in the market persists and reinforces the upward trend in the housing market. Data from the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, reveals that some of the conditions that led to the 2007-2009 housing bubble and crash began reappearing in 2015. According to NAR, home price increases have been incredible in the previous years; in May 2015, 39 successive months of increases in housing prices was recorded; since the last housing bubble and crash, from May 2014 to May 2015, home prices have gone up a staggering 7.9%. In addition, the NAR noted that 5.1% of the existing housing market inventory sold, which when seasonally adjusted, equated to a rate of 5.35 million homes.

According to Wikipedia a housing bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets. It is characterized by rapid increases in valuations of real property such as housing until they reach unsustainable levels and then decline. Four years into the housing bubble downturn, much of the country remains hopelessly confused about what happened, why it happened and who is to blame. In my research paper I will try and demonstrate what a housing bubble is, some of the reasons for the bubble, was it preventable, how it kept growing, how it burst and how it has affected our economy.

This chapter is about the background of 2007-2008 financial crisis. The 2007-2008 financial crisis has a huge impact on US banking system and how the banks operate and how they are regulated after the financial turmoil. This financial crisis started with difficulty of rolling over asset backed commercial papers in the summer of 2007 due to uncertainty on the liquidity of mortgage backed securities and questions about the soundness of banks and non-bank financial institutes when interest rate continued to go up at a faster pace since 2004. In March 2008 the second wave of liquidity loss occurred after US government decided to bailout Bear Stearns and some commercial banks, then other financial institutions took it as a warning of financial difficulty of their peers. In the meantime banks started hoarding cash and reserve instead of lending out to fellow banks and corporations. The third wave of credit crunch which eventually brought down US financial system and spread over the globe was Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy in August 2008. Many major commercial banks in US held structured products and commercial papers of Lehman Brother, as a result, they suffered a great loss as Lehman Brother went into insolvency. This panic of bank insolvency caused loss of liquidity in both commercial paper market and inter-bank market. Still banks were reluctant to turn to US government or Federal Reserve as this kind of action might indicate delicacy of