House prices in France rose 3.9% q-o-q in Q2 2009, after several quarters of price falls, according to the National Association of Real Estate Agents in France (FNAIM). France’s economic recovery has surprised market players and government officials, and is attributable to a fiscal boost, and to automatic stabilisers such as welfare support. When adjusted for inflation, the average house price rose by 2.97% over the same period. These quarterly price increases are the highest since Q2 2004.
see www.globalpropertyguide.com for the full story
Findaproperty.com rental index shows a 1.3% decrease in rent levels for the UK in December 2009, this is still 3% lower than a year ago. Supply levels are 1.7% higher than last month and an average property takes 56 days to rent.
See www.findaproperty.com for full information
Analysts at Moody’s have proposed a new misery index based on both unemployment and unmanageable debt leading to economic misery. The index uses the unemployment rate and the fiscal deficit as a percent of gross domestic product to calculate figures.
This measure, Moody’s says, is intended to reflect the expected challenges facing some major economics over the next decade.
The index value in the United States and United Kingdom is high, but then it’s much worse in places like Spain, Latvia, Ireland and Greece. Which is perhaps not terribly comforting.
For the full story see http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/a-new-misery-index