Theu.s. Housing Market And The U.s. Financial Crisis

In the U.S., a housing bubble began to emerge just after the turn of the 21st century. In these years, the economy was in great shape, interest rates were low, and consumers were ready to buy, which drove up real

Firstly, here are some major issues that lead to the housing crisis and the economic collapse. The financial crisis happened because banks were able to create too much money, too quickly, and used it to push up house prices and speculate on financial markets (Financial, 2015). This is a result of investors wanting more mortgages to make more money. Global investors wanted a low risk investment that paid in return. Brokers would sell

effectively encouraged frivolous spending and heavy borrowing allowing people to live beyond their means. Low interest rates also increased the discount value of assets and therefore increased their value. This created a house price boom in the UK and US. It was in the US that this twined with high levels of borrowing created the subprime lending market, whereby individuals with poor or no credit history borrowed vast subs of money to buy

Between 2004 and 2006, the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates from 1% and capping out at to 5.25%. Even with interest rates on the rise, the housing bubble continued to grow. Why did the bubble continue to grow when typically interest rates increase homeownerships typically declines as well? Economists look at the lending practices before and after the bubble. Prior to the bubble standard typically included, “documentation of credit histories of prospective borrowers, their current income and assets, evidence of job stability and pay, and related factors that in theory help a lender assess a potential borrower’s ability to pay for a mortgage.” During the 2000’s lending practices eased with the government continuing to push their policy on continuing to grow homeownership numbers. To continue homeownership lenders developed new innovative loans such as, “piggy back loans (80/20), adjustable rate mortgages, stated income loans, negative amortization mortgages, and multi-layered risked.” These loans gave homeowners many options as with piggy back loans, allowed consumers to purchase a home without having to put down a down payment, however they would have a first and second mortgage. Many consumers also opted for adjustable rate mortgages such as interest only loans. These loans allowed the consumer to purchase a home that would most likely be out of their monetary range, with

There has been controversy on this topic for several years, there are many theories that have tried to explain what role was played by the monetary policy in the housing market developments, some theories states that a loose monetary policy was a prime cause of the bubble in the housing prices and activity and some others indicate that it was the Fed that played a major role on the bubble in the housing prices.

The housing market crash, which broke out in the United States in 2007, was caused by high risk subprime mortgages. The subprime mortgage crisis resulted in a sudden reduction in money and credit availability from banks and other lending institutions, which was referred to as a “credit crunch.” The “credit crunch” and its effect spread across the United States and further on to other countries across the world. The “credit crunch” caused a collapse in the housing markets, stock markets and major financial institutions across the globe.

The Federal Funds Rate also started to rise during this period. As seen in Figures 4 and 5, the number of houses under construction and housing prices during the mid 2000s were growing extremely steadily. Similarly to the dot-com boom, there was a housing boom due to the fact that housing prices were growing and people were becoming more interested in investing in houses. They believed that housing prices would continue to grow this steadily and investing would be worth it in the long run, so much so that average people were buying houses just to turn around and sell them for a profit. The average mortgage rate in 2001 was $90,000, which grew over 60% to $150,000 in 2007. This unsustainable growth in housing prices led to another bursting bubble. Not only were households very much in debt due to their high mortgages, but financial firms were also so heavily indebted as they were selling risky loans.

The first claims that the chief root was government involvement in the housing market, this contribution is said to have overvalued a housing bubble and resulted in the crisis. Another attributes the financial crisis to greedy wall street bankers who intentionally influenced the financial market to take advantage of homeowners and mortgagers, deliberately making the financial system vulnerable for their personal satisfaction. A third account underlines both global economic forces and failures in U.S. policy and supervision. This account states that a high influx of money into the economy caused bankers to look for resourceful ways to make profit. This resulted in the inflation of housing prices with the hopes of reselling at a higher price between 6 months to two years. Banks also introduced an adjustable rate mortgage (sub-prime mortgages) which allowed borrowers to vary their monthly payments. That meant the overall principal grows over time, compared to normal mortgages where the balance owed reduced over 30 years to zero and the debtor owns the house and is not obliged to make any more payments. If the price of houses kept going up and the debtor

Consequently, hundreds of billions dollars a year were flowing through the securitization chain. Since anyone could get a mortgage, home purchases and housing prices had skyrocketed. The result was the biggest financial bubble in history.

interest rate policies to the housing bubble, but only to an extent. But also there is evidence that the

One of the first indications of the late 2000 financial crisis that led to downward spiral known as the “Recession” was the subprime mortgages; known as the “mortgage mess”. A few years earlier the substantial boom of the housing market led to the uprising of mortgage loans. Because interest rates were low, investors took advantage of the low rates to buy homes that they could in return ‘flip’ (reselling) and homeowners bought homes that they typically wouldn’t have been able to afford. High interest rates usually keep people from borrowing money because it limits the amount available to use for an investment. But the creation of the subprime mortgage

None of these explanations, however, is capable of fully explaining the housing bubble. From 1997 to 2006 nominal U.S. housing prices rose 188%. By mid-2009, however, housing prices had fallen by 33% from peak. As the United States attempts to rebuild its housing finance system, it is of paramount importance to understand what caused the housing bubble. Until we understand how and why the housing bubble occurred, we cannot be certain that a reconstructed housing finance system will not again produce such a devastating bubble. As you can see there are numerous theories and explanations for the bubble. Without getting too deep

Besides, low interest rates and large inflows of foreign funds created easy credit conditions for years before the crisis and that simulated the boom in housing construction (Steverman and Bogoslaw, 2008). Moreover, easy credit and money inflow greatly contributed to U.S housing bubble and the rise of house’s price.

The U.S. housing market went into a classic speculative bubble. Home loans were easy to get, so more and more people were buying houses. The increased demand for houses caused the price to increase. The rising prices created even more demand, as people started to look at homes as investments — investments that never went down in value.

Housing had much to do with the macroeconomic strengths that cause The Great Recession. A big chunk of the borrowing during the consumer age was mortgage debt. The expanded availability of mortgage loans and low interest rates made home ownership more attractive. “Subprime” mortgages which granted credit to borrowerers with weak financial records, is said to be a definite cause of The Great recession. This caused an increase in demand which drove home prices upward, leading Americans to borrow more and more money. Many loans were bundled up and sold together as mortgage-backed securities, which were brought by large investment banks.