A very interesting article and survey I thought. I'm not sure things are as clear as some people might think, markets appear to still be very situation specific, and even markets within markets such as Spain.
The housing bubble was not confined to the United States. If anything, the bubble here was later and smaller than in most of Europe. So it's hardly surprising that house-price declines are not confined to the US either. According to the latest Knight Frank survey, the year-on-year decline in New Zealand house prices is 2.2%; in Germany it's 2.5%; in the UK it's 3.9%; and in Latvia it's a whopping 24.1%, even bigger than the USA's 16.8% fall.
But more interesting, to me, is that globally, house prices are still rising, which is not necessarily what you'd expect to see in an article headlined "House price crash goes global":
Globally, the rate of house price growth fell to 4.8% in the second quarter of 2008, down from 6.1% in the first quarter of the year.
Yes, I know it can be confusing with all those negative words, but house prices are up almost 5% year-on-year, even including the US. (I'm not clear how the countries are weighted, though.)
Link to article
The housing bubble was not confined to the United States. If anything, the bubble here was later and smaller than in most of Europe. So it's hardly surprising that house-price declines are not confined to the US either. According to the latest Knight Frank survey, the year-on-year decline in New Zealand house prices is 2.2%; in Germany it's 2.5%; in the UK it's 3.9%; and in Latvia it's a whopping 24.1%, even bigger than the USA's 16.8% fall.
But more interesting, to me, is that globally, house prices are still rising, which is not necessarily what you'd expect to see in an article headlined "House price crash goes global":
Globally, the rate of house price growth fell to 4.8% in the second quarter of 2008, down from 6.1% in the first quarter of the year.
Yes, I know it can be confusing with all those negative words, but house prices are up almost 5% year-on-year, even including the US. (I'm not clear how the countries are weighted, though.)
Link to article
