Housing Finance in the Euro Area.

This report analyses the main developments in housing finance in the euro area in the decade, covering the period from 1999 to 2007. It looks at mortgage indebtedness, various characteristics of loans for house purchase, the funding of such loans and the spreads between the interest rates on loans granted by banks and the interest rates banks had to pay on their funding, or the return they made on alternative investments. In addition, the report contains a comparison of key aspects of housing finance in the euro area with those in the United Kingdom and the United States. At the end, the report briefly discusses aspects of the transmission of monetary policy to the economy. JEL Classification: D14, E44, E5, G21, R21.bank competition, bank funding, bankruptcy, banks, cost of funding (of banks), cost of housing loans, debt service, ECB monetary policy, foreclosure, household debt, household survey, housing finance, insolvency, loan maturity, loan-to-value ratio, monetary policy transmission, mortgage, mortgage covered bond, mortgage equity withdrawal, mortgage interest rate spread, redemption scheme, rental market, retail deposits, securitisation, taxation, US housing market crisis.