Wednesday, June 4, 2014

"Queen Denies Housing Bubble Exists"

No not Freddie Mercury silly, he's in the post below.

We're talking HM, the gal who famously inquired of the economics profession "Why did nobody notice it?" regarding the signs and symptoms that foretold the financial destruction of 2008-09.*

Regarding real-estate, she owns privately both Sandringham and Balmoral while most of the other properties associated with her household are on a long-term loan arrangement.

From City AM:
There is no housing bubble, we are all safe from the spectre of another boom and bust.
Or so says the Queen’s speech and the accompanying notes the government published today.
“My ministers will continue to promote the Help to Buy and Right to Buy schemes to support home ownership,” she said this morning.
These are not really the Queen’s words of course – she is given the speech by the government, and she doesn’t go anywhere near the briefing notes handed out alongside the speech.
These go into more depth on the housing market and show the government firmly disagrees with economists’ warnings on booming prices.
“Over 7,300 households have been supported by the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme by the end of March, of which 80 per cent are for first time buyers,” said the document.
“Only 19 per cent of mortgage applications are from London and the South East, with the average price less than £152,000, and this has not resulted in a housing bubble.”...MORE
*Here's LSE Prof and economist Luis Garicano getting back to her a few months after the fact and explaining why her account experienced such a large drawdown: 
Queen Elizabeth II and Luis Garicano at LSE