The New Corn Laws: Why Housing Costs Are So High

Normally a rising demand for food would lead to imports, but in 1815 the British Parliament passed prohibitive tariffs, called the Corn Laws, to prevent a collapse in the price of grain after the Napoleonic Wars. Given that the British food supply was based on a fixed quantity of land, this meant that if
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… on international car makers to meet imminent European emissions standards for new vehicles was also foretelling the fast-tracking of the demise of these engines. “While the results of our survey still indicate a diesel favourability‚ we would urge motorists to carefully consider their options when buying
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Read the latest edition of Lending Focus for our summary of what we think are the more interesting recent legal developments in banking and finance.
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The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.46% during the week ending March 8, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, out Thursday. That was up 3 basis points from the prior week and leaves rates nearly half-a-percentage point higher than the level at which they started the year.
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Non-bank lender Chifley Securities said it received loans worth $1.87bn in the last calendar year, up from $1.1bn in 2016. While about 98% of its loan applications came through the third-party channel in 2016, the proportion of broker-originated loans declined to 94% last year. Chifley told Australian
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Sending a spacecraft to the far reaches of our solar system to mine asteroids might seem like an improbable ambition best left to science fiction. But it's inching closer to reality. A NASA mission is underway to test the feasibility on a nearby asteroid, and a niche group of companies is ramping up to claim
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Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected prices to rise by 0.1 percent from December. January marked the first time in exactly three years that home prices have stayed flat for two consecutive months. In Toronto, which represents 27.9 percent of the overall market in Canada, prices slipped by 0.1 percent,
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Every year about this time, I update my readers on how things are going in the single family home market in the Island City. This year is no exception. In this column I will discuss some overall results and trends for the whole city. There will be additional information on the three specific neighborhoods of
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The panel, which is led by the Treasury Department and made up of representatives from multiple agencies, has the authority to block foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies for national security reasons; it has effectively killed several acquisitions linked to Chinese buyers over the past year.
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So say the strong, confident women who are leading the way in the GTA's real estate and development industry. While the faces in the field may not yet reflect gender parity, women are powering through the testosterone-lined ceiling in growing numbers. In celebration of International Women's Day,
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As is so often the case, merchants must follow their customers' lead – and customers are buying what they want from whatever merchants are offering those products, regardless of where those businesses are based. Albert Drouart, director, international at Braintree isn't going to pretend the task is easy
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A million dollars doesn't buy what it used to — especially when it comes to luxury real estate. The Wealth Report, from London-based real estate brokerage Knight Frank, measured the top markets in the world and compared how much prime property $1 million would buy in each. Monaco still reigns as
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WAUKESHA — Does a title firm have the responsibility to protect its customers from potential scammers? A Milwaukee company is arguing that is indeed the case, filing a lawsuit after sending a $162,000 check to a scammer instead of the Brookfield title firm it had been working with on a real estate deal.
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Canyon Lake had the ninth largest home market and fourth largest land market in the state, valued at $60.6 million and $53.2 million respectively. Dezirae Burnett, media relations for Lake Home Real Estate, said this is partly because of a slew of builders purchasing property on the northern side of
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The Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association (IMBA) is sponsoring a one-day conference on March 14 at the Doubletree Hilton Oak Brook Hotel, 1909 Spring … The news of Gary Cohn's resignation from the National Economic Council reverberated across markets Wednesday, causing equity markets to
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If you're not into Bitcoin, here's a bit about it: Unlike traditional currencies, it's not owned or controlled by a government. It's easily sent across borders–person to person–each transaction recorded on lots of computers. Since banks aren't involved, you can conceal your identity as you send and receive.
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The news was first broken by Cheddar, which said around 100 engineers—less than 10% of that unit—would go. CNBC also reported the news based on its own sourcing. The Snapchat maker had more than 3,000 employees in total at the end of last year. Snap's share price held even on the news,
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Nationwide home flips rose 1 percent to the highest level in a decade. Flippers grabbed more than 200,000 U.S. houses in 2017. But house flipping still isn't close to where it was before the housing market crash. “The surge in home flipping in the last three years is built on a more fundamentally sound
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South Burlington, Vermont's pilot program made in cooperation with global Blockchain real estate marketplace Propy Inc. has completed the first completely Blockchain-based real estate deed in the US, financial blog ZeroHedge reported Thursday, March 8. An unnamed source at Propy told ZeroHedge
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MCLEAN, VA–(Marketwired – Mar 8, 2018) – Freddie Mac ( OTCQB : FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing the 30-year fixed mortgage rate increasing for the ninth consecutive week. News Facts. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.46
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