Dr. Harold Hunt Lecture

Dr. Harold Hunt Lecture

Dr. Harold Hunt gave a lecture on the History of Real Estate Credit Markets. The lecture comprised of a summary of the evolution of Real Estate Credit Markets over the last century to what the situation is today.
prior to the early 1900's, the major loans available to people were variable rate and interest only with balloon payments. The balloon payment structure was done so that ranchers could pay interest only just in case their products or farms did not produce yield within the loan period. Around this period, Building & Loans were started to help the working class own their own homes.
In 1933, S&L accounts and deposit insurance for banks was introduced. Amortized mortgages over a period of 20-30 years were also introduced. Low inflation and stable rates allowed this to work successfully in the 1940's and 1950's. 
The Vietnam war caused inflation which caused interest rates to fluctuate and this affected Lenders drastically. 
In more recent times, the 1980's to be specific, bad lending practices and over-saturation of the real estate building market led to several problems that had serious effect on the economy. 
A similar thing also happened in 2007. Aggressive lending and overbuilding caused the United States to go into a recession.

http://www.milkeninstitute.org/pdf/riseandfallexcerpt.pdf
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/ronald-griess/2011/06/21/the-balance-sheet-of-households

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Real Estate Development In Nigeria. Potentials and Concerns
Nigeria recently became the largest economy in Africa and is a land full of resources and opportunities. Amongst these opportunities is real estate development. The Oil boom in the 1970's helped the Nigerian government to invest largely in the development of new cities. since then, real estate development has remained a major opportunity for local and foreign investors. However, there are also risks involved in investing in Nigerian Real Estate. Some of these pros and cons are discussed in the articles below

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324251504578579933994141760

http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Africa/Nigeria