Objectives: The purpose of the paper is to compare the boom of late 1980s, which turned into deep economic recession in early 1990s in Finland, to the current crisis. During early 1990s GDP declined cumulatively by almost 15 per cent, unemployment went up to 15 percent and the earlier housing boom, much due to financial liberalization, ended to a drastic drop in housing and non-residential property prices. Bankrupts of firms, households in turmoil, public finance in crisis followed. Special attention is devoted to the links between macroeconomic variables and policies, and housing markets. Then, the currents crisis is analyzed in similar terms.

Data/Methods: Analytical description with time series data, as well as institutional and policy variable data is used to compare the two cases. Also results of studies on earlier crisis are summarized and used to evaluate and interpret the current crisis and its future turns.  

Results/Expected Results: An interpretation whether we are experiencing now something completely different than in 1990s or are there, e.g. from housing market view-point of view, several elements which apply to both cases.