UK housing mirrors the US

You think that only U.S. citizens have been hit hard by a lousy real estate market? New data released by the Nationwide Building Society in the UK, points to similar housing problems for our friends across the pond.

According to a report on Bloomberg: "Real-estate stocks had their worst performance in more than 20 years in the second quarter and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King predicts 'extremely weak activity' in the housing market. Mortgage approvals fell to the lowest in at least nine years in May and consumer confidence dropped to the lowest level in 18 years last month, reports showed yesterday."

While many predict that the US housing market will only start recovering in another year or two, I think that in the UK, you can double that amount of time. During the bull housing run, prices in the UK just skyrocketed, and what goes up tends to come back down. Also, it's important to keep in mind that the US has already been in the midst of the slump for a few years already and we are much closer to the end of this negative cycle than many international housing markets, as they just recently entered the downturn.

Investors thinking of buying beaten up UK housing real estate, should be very careful, as it's possible that there could be further price drops.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 7/1/08.