Big banks unlikely to slip on credit crunch spill

By Evan Pickworth

Johannesburg – Large banks are not expected to default due to the credit market dislocation that has followed the sub-prime crisis, Moody’s Investors Service reported in an international policy perspective on Thursday.

“Indeed we view the possibility of any bank of any importance or visibility defaulting during this crisis as very unlikely,” noted the Moody’s analysts. More…

Cracks in house prices to widen

By Evan Pickworth

Johannesburg – Jacques du Toit, senior economist at Absa, said that their projections were for nominal house prices to taper off in 2008 to just 10 percent growth as higher interest rates bite.

He added that average growth for 2007 is forecast at 14 percent, which is in line with his forecast in May.
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In home loans, you’re damned if you lent and damned if you didn’t

By Caroline Baum

Homeownership has long been considered a desirable goal.

Put a person in a home of his own, the thinking goes, and he starts to care about the quality of local education, maintaining a drug- and crime-free neighbourhood, and the appearance of his property and the block on which he lives.

Once the US government decided homeownership was in the public interest, it went about making it more affordable. Mortgage interest and real estate taxes are deductible. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures mortgages. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity administers federal laws that ensure equal opportunity for potential homeowners. More…

Rental industry, Mercedes C-class push new car sales ahead by 17%

By Roy Cokayne

Pretoria – Sales of new cars last month recovered from four poor months: sales notched 37 719 units, a 17 percent increase on sales in July.

Last month’s sales figures were only 3.8 percent lower than last August’s record sales of 39 203 units.

However, Tony Twine, a motor industry analyst, stressed that these figures did not indicate a revival in consumer spending.

Twine said the apparent revival in car sales came from the impact of rental industry purchases in the entry level segment and increased sales in the premium market because of the launch of the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class. More…

Mr Price warns of stormy waters in second half

By Tom Robbins

Mr Price expected trading in the second half to March 2008 to be “more challenging” in the face of the new credit law, higher interest rates and costly fuel, the discount retailer said last week. But it believed that profit would still grow for the year as a whole.

Mr Price’s warning follows predictions by Woolworths and Massmart, the owner of the Game brand, that sales growth would slow. More…