Despite the exuberance in Spanish equity and bond markets (which in the US managed to create a quadruple-dip bounce [4]), home prices just can't get a break in the troubled bailout-less nation. According to TINSA [5], the general home price in Spain fell 11.6% YoY, and has recent reaccelerated with a 2.8% drop sequentially as hope for a third-time's-the-charm bounce now faded for the forelorn real estate market. The Mediterranean Coast suffered the most, -14.7% YoY (and are down a cumulative 39.5% from the highs). Overall, Spanish house prices are down a cumulative 32.4% from the December 2007 highs (back to 2003 levels). This re-acceleration of the downturn in home prices is hardly what the Dreme is made of as bank balance sheets come under further pressure; deposit outflows will simply not stop until there is underlying improvement in bank collateral, i.e. mortgages and housing values; and so in effect, all this news indicates is that bank balance sheets are even more impaired than previously believed (tourniquet or amputation?).
The quadruple-dip of the Spanish real estate market...
[6]
which is now back to 2003 levels...
[7]
Charts: TINSA [5]