The house-price supercycle is just getting going
Why property prices could keep rising for years
After THE financial crisis of 2007-09, global house prices fell by 6% in real terms. But, before long, they picked up again, and sailed past their pre-crisis peak. When covid-19 struck, economists reckoned a property crash was on the way. In fact there was a boom, with mask-wearing house-hunters fighting over desirable nests. And then from 2021 onwards, as central banks raised interest rates to defeat inflation, fears mounted of a house-price horror show. In fact, real prices fell by just 5.6%—and now they are rising fast again. Housing seems to have a remarkable ability to keep appreciating, whatever the weather. It will probably defy gravity even more insolently in the coming years.
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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Block party”
Finance & economics
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From the October 5th 2024 edition
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Trump takes America’s trade policies back to the 19th century
The president jacks up tariffs on all countries, with particularly sharp rises for much of Asia
The American government’s accidental private-credit subsidy
How a Depression-era lending scheme became a trillion-dollar wheeze
Can the world’s free-traders withstand Trump’s attack?
Much will depend on the courage of Europe
Trump’s “Liberation Day” is set to whack America’s economy
A rush of new tariffs will hurt growth, raise prices and worsen inequality
Even priests need the free market
What clergymen can learn from economists
Can foreign investors learn to love China again?
Wall Street still needs more to coax it back. But non-American firms may be ready to return