Housing Slowdown Goes Beyond U.S.

Countries in the rest of the world are beginning to feel their own versions of the U.S. housing downturn.In Ireland, Spain, Britain, and elsewhere, housing markets are returning to earth after soaring for decades. Experts worry that these countries could suffer the mortgage defaults and foreclosures that have been such a problem in California, Florida, and other U.S. states.''The problems in the U.S. are being transmitted to Europe,'' says Michael Ball, professor of urban and property economics at the University of Reading in Britain, who studies housing prices. ''What's happening now is an awful lot more grief than we expected.''The problem is most acute in Spain, where more than 4 million homes have been built in the last decade – more than in Germany, Britain, and France combined. Now property values have dropped more than 15 percent and mortgages are drying up.