Identifying Regional Differences in the Spanish Mortgage Market with Sheaf Methodology

The strong expansion of mortgage credit in Spain during the second half of the nineties was due to a decline in interest rates (a reduction that was greater in Spain than elsewhere in Europe) and also to a tremendous competition between financial institutions to increase market share. This expansive phase lasted until 2006, followed by a sharp turnaround in 2007. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the evolution of the mortgage market in different Spanish provinces. We have performed a comparative analysis of different regional trajectories using statistics on the number of monthly housing loans for the period between late 1995 and early 2012, applying sheaf methodology for the visual comparison of geographic time series. We conclude that the provinces that have been hit the hardest by the recent recession are those that reached the higher peaks during the expansionary cycle. Keywords: Loan market, regional analysis, geographic time series, statistical graphics, interest rates, sheaf methodology.