feb 1, 2007 - American housing bubble bursts

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A boom in U.S. housing prices abruptly reverses course in 2006. Declines accelerate in 2007, which will see the largest single-year drop in U.S. home sales in more than two decades. The downturn prompts a collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage industry, which offered loans to individuals with poor credit, sometimes without requiring a down payment. More than twenty-five subprime lending firms declare bankruptcy in February and March 2007. The collapse rattles the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which measures the combined stock values of the thirty largest companies in the United States. On February 27, it loses 416 points, its biggest one-day point loss since 9/11.

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