Steven Perlberg
Other
While housing markets across the globe slowly recover, it’s no great secret that some seem crazy overvalued.
Take London, for example, where asking prices jumped 10% in October alone and foreign buyers are swooping in to buy.
Hites Ahir and Prakash Loungani at the International Monetary Fund are out with a new report that puts global housing markets in perspective.
Global housing prices rose in the second quarter of 2013, the sixth straight quarter of growth.
“House prices rose in 32 of the 51 advanced and emerging market economies in the IMF’s Global House Price Index, compared with increases in 9 countries in the second quarter of 2009, when the housing crisis was in full swing,” according to the report.
For many OECD countries, however, “the ratio of house prices to rents—a typical measure of house price valuation—remains above historical averages, leaving room for price corrections down the road.”
Take a look at Canada in the chart below. The country’s ratio is 85% above the average.
