[Wahlet]

We Americans are encountering a bit of an economy slow-down / recession here (despite our government's reassurances and rose-colored glasses). I'm no economic expert, but I do see a few things happening. For example, the slowdown in the housing market. The price of property has been skyrocketing in my neighborhood, but the last few months have stopped (or reversed?) that, and neighbors who bought their property as an "investment" are now not able to sell it. And there's the devaluing of the US currency. Fortunately, in this case, I don't have much savings...so have little to lose when we end up in NZ!

So I was curious...does the US "slowdown" affect you Kiwis much or at all?

[gpbenton]

The biggest difference so far is that interest rates on mortgages have risen without prompting from a rise in the governments already high cash rate. Due to the high cost of borrowing money for the banks, which comes back to the sub-prime crisis.

The high interest rates have already caused a slowing down in the booming house market, but that was due to NZ inflation, not the US.