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Economics, Industry NewsGlobal real estate update
I attended a session at Inman this week where global market experts from Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain spoke about the state of their real estate markets. Here’s a quick summary of their key points:
Netherlands – New home sales are down 70 percent from 2007.
Germany – Has their lowest unemployment rate since the wall came down. They are expecting the decline to begin in 2009 but are optimistic since they did not have the huge boom so they did not have as far to fall.
France – Their housing market is down 25 percent from 2007. Home prices decreased five percent in 2008 and are expected to drop to 10 percent in 2009.
Spain – Has been hit the hardest. They consider themselves the Florida of Europe. Home inventory backlogs are huge and they expect it to take years to sort itself out.
Canada – Has huge opportunities. Their foreclosure rate is only one-quarter of one percent. They never had a subprime crisis.
Russia – Prices have not deflated yet. They are expected to fall in 2009. They expect more overseas purchases by Russians since there is good value in other countries. Russians typically pay in cash but the problem is that few people speak their language in other countries and few agents can easily assist them.
The underlying theme is that cooperation in global markets is the key. The world is a smaller place and all markets are dependent on each other. Educating yourself on the real estate practices of other countries can pay huge dividends.
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Marty Manion is the Director of Information Management & Board Services at the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors®. |
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