GLOBAL HOUSING MARKETS

The subprime crisis that began in the United States in 2007 sent the world into an unprecedented financial crisis. The contagion in financial markets quickly became very clear, affecting countries from France, Ireland, and Iceland to Singapore, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, as well as some emerging economies to a lesser extent.

As the dust settles, we are just now beginning to gain a better understanding of exactly why some countries were more vulnerable than others, as well as how real estate markets were really affected. But many questions still remain. That's why Global Housing Markets, part of the Robert W. Kolb Series in Finance, has been created.

Comprised of contributed chapters from leading academics, researchers, and practitioners from around the world, this timely resource explores how the contagion spread to housing markets throughout the world, the paths and transmission mechanisms by which it spread, and the institutional and regulatory context in which policy measures were adopted in response to the spreading crisis.

Divided into five comprehensive parts—each primarily grouping together nations along geographic lines, although there are other shared characteristics among the national market settings in each section—Global Housing Markets skillfully:

• Details the U.S. housing crisis as it emerged and its interconnections with the financial system and crisis; analyzes the U.S. policy framework and its contributions, and responses, to the crisis; and discusses the degree to which they succeeded as well as the issues that remain.
• Examines the impact of the global financial crisis on six different European countries—ranging from Germany, which continued its long-term but gradual downward trend in home sales and prices to Denmark and the Netherlands, which though affected, were able to weather the storm and did not need bank bailouts.
• Highlights the various aspects of the housing market and mortgage finance system in Russia, and describes the transformation of the Serbian housing market since the political situation stabilized at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
• Analyzes both large Asian economies—looking at India, Japan, and the two critical urban housing markets of Beijing and Shanghai as well as the financial system in the People's Republic of China—and smaller markets such as Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and Hong Kong.
• Covers four countries spread across the globe—Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Israel—whose housing markets showed various levels of immunity to the consequences and contagion effects of the global financial crisis.

The widely varying experiences of both the housing and mortgage markets in the countries described throughout the papers in this volume are evidence of the complex interplay of economic conditions, institutional setting, regulatory framework, and policy responses in directing and reacting to the flow of a catastrophe. Engaging and informative, Global Housing Markets seeks to put recent events in perspective, while sharing some far-reaching lessons from this crisis and providing valuable insights on how we can effectively move forward in its aftermath.