One of the more interesting and most dramatic features of the housing bubble days was how pervasive and broad the mania was, encompassing a multitude of regional housing markets across the United States and around the world.In fact, that was one of the primary arguments that prescient author John Talbott outlined out in his early 2000s books on the housing bubble, as he asserted that the sheer fact that bubbles were occurring in so many world property markets simultaneously likely implied that local supply constraints were NOT the cause of the significant house price appreciation, as many had argued.
Talbott accurately concluded that relaxed lending standards and a global credit boom were the real causes of the majority of outstanding property price appreciation.
Today, post-housing crash, we are still seeing property markets moving together somewhat as governments around the globe scramble to prop up quickly deflating housing assets.
One notable example can be seen by comparing the S&P/Case-Shiller index to that of the two popular U.K. home prices indices.
Today, Nationwide released the latest data confirming that U.K. property prices have fallen back a bit as was suggested by the January Halifax release.
Now, all three series, are showing a similar trend of a great decline, a government sponsored bounce and now indications of continued price deflation.
The following chart (click for dynamic full-screen version) shows S&P/Case-Shiller Composite-10 series along with the Nationwide and Halifax U.K. series.
