US housing slump fuels crash fears

Floundering American property market could spark global slowdown worse than dotcom collapse The downturn will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year. New homes sold in July was 22 per cent lower... prices...flat, fears are mounting.. will become a full-blown crash. 'Freefall' said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics...The number of unsold new homes is now at a 10-year high....Capital calculates that 73,000 jobs a month will be lost. ...the long-expected housing market crunch. Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley...the slowdown will shave at least 2 percentage points off GDP growth next year, taking the US perilously close to recession, as construction spending plummets and homeowners lose. 'For a wealth-dependent US economy,...A bursting of the property bubble...for...an increasingly integrated global economy,' he added. Fionnuala Earley, group economist at Nationwide, said ...immigration suggests there's going to be tenant demand... people are going to think again about whether they should move and whether they should stretch themselves.' Heather Stewart, economics correspondent Sunday August 27, 2006 The Observer Monopoliconomy economists prefer not to use the terms, rent, site value & land values instead: "the cushion of extra wealth that comes from rapid price rises.' housing market, homeowners lose, another asset bubble, fragile housing sector, property supply constraints.'