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The Economist house-price indices

economist.com

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Re: The Economist house-price indices

#3

Post by cwal37 »

Chicago is so ridiculously cheap compared to the rest of the very small group of "large american cities with big functional public transit networks." Never thought I'd really consider moving back home, but that's definitely something I didn't appreciate growing up.

Given the lack of geographic constraints, it's amazing how expensive the DC area is. In % terms since 2000 it looks like only SF has exceeded it out of the big cities. NYC had a lower increase, and Seattle is only just now getting to a similar level. I hate looking for housing here.

Re: The Economist house-price indices

#4

Post by caseysoftware »

jimrandomh wrote: post #2

This says the price of mousing in SF has only increased by 78% since 2000. I spot-checked that, and the first alternate source of data I could find, https://www.paragon-re.com/trend/san-francisco-home-prices-m... , says the increase has been much larger.

It looks like the Paragon data is nominal dollars but the Economist adjusted to account for inflation. If you flip the Economist chart to nominal dollars, it's a +158% difference, so that's a good chunk of the difference but not all.

Re: The Economist house-price indices

#5

Post by gervase »

Are there any well-known theories that explain these disparities? I was quite surprised by the nearly-flat cost of housing in Germany (relative to inflation), for example. Is this a product of legislative, economic, or cultural differences?

Re: The Economist house-price indices

#6

Post by CalRobert »

gervase wrote: post #5

Are there any well-known theories that explain these disparities? I was quite surprised by the nearly-flat cost of housing in Germany (relative to inflation), for example. Is this a product of legislative, economic, or cultural differences?

Germany has had a bit of a problem with a low birth rate. There's also a cultural dislike of debt I believe. I eye properties on immowelt with envy pretty often.

Re: The Economist house-price indices

#8

Post by detaro »

gervase wrote: post #5

Are there any well-known theories that explain these disparities? I was quite surprised by the nearly-flat cost of housing in Germany (relative to inflation), for example. Is this a product of legislative, economic, or cultural differences?

What does this house price number here capture? Cost of a single-family home? Buying cost of residential buildings in general? Or some combined index of actual housing cost?

some speculations:

A large part of the German market is renting, even more so in the "hot" cities. Many smaller towns and rural areas are struggling, so there are likely quite a few cheap houses available there which keep an average down, even if home prices in boom areas increase.

Buying a house is one of the few widely "acceptable" reasons to go in debt, but many Germans still try to avoid or at least minimize it.

Re: The Economist house-price indices

#9

Post by branchless »

gervase wrote: post #5

Are there any well-known theories that explain these disparities? I was quite surprised by the nearly-flat cost of housing in Germany (relative to inflation), for example. Is this a product of legislative, economic, or cultural differences?

German banks lend against productive endeavor, shunning the Anglophone rentier behaviour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpq2eqz6mR0

They also make land available to build on, unlike former UK colonies which all use a combination of zoning to suppress supply and loose credit to increase bidding levels.

All former UK colonies have land bubbles.

Re: The Economist house-price indices

#10

Post by philfrasty »

gervase wrote: post #5

Are there any well-known theories that explain these disparities? I was quite surprised by the nearly-flat cost of housing in Germany (relative to inflation), for example. Is this a product of legislative, economic, or cultural differences?

The numbers differ A LOT if you live in one of the major cities in Germany. The house my parents bought in 2005 in Munich is worth at least 2x at this point from what I have seen in property sales in the neighbourhood.
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