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The average price of existing homes has dropped by 6 per cent in six months, but analysts are warning that the worst is still not over for American homeowners. Borrowers with shaky credit records and billions of dollars-worth of loans are due to come off cut-price mortgage deals over the next 12 months, many of them facing a sudden increase in interest rates of up to three percentage points.
A Congressional committee warned last week that 2 million properties could eventually be repossessed.
At the same time, America's anxious consumers are contending with eye-watering petrol prices. The cost of a barrel of oil hit a new record high, above $92, on Friday, and a growing number of investors were placing bets that the price would hit $100 before the end of the year.
Tensions between the Turkish government and Kurdish militants, and growing fears that Washington could be planning an attack on Iran, have helped oil prices to smash records repeatedly in the past month.
Another reason for the jump in the oil price is the renewed slide in the dollar. The greenback has already broken through record lows against the euro, close to $1.44, causing alarm in European capitals that eurozone exports will become impossibly uncompetitive in the world's biggest market.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2200423,00.html
A Congressional committee warned last week that 2 million properties could eventually be repossessed.
At the same time, America's anxious consumers are contending with eye-watering petrol prices. The cost of a barrel of oil hit a new record high, above $92, on Friday, and a growing number of investors were placing bets that the price would hit $100 before the end of the year.
Tensions between the Turkish government and Kurdish militants, and growing fears that Washington could be planning an attack on Iran, have helped oil prices to smash records repeatedly in the past month.
Another reason for the jump in the oil price is the renewed slide in the dollar. The greenback has already broken through record lows against the euro, close to $1.44, causing alarm in European capitals that eurozone exports will become impossibly uncompetitive in the world's biggest market.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2200423,00.html
