Real estate bubbles

A real estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets) is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets. It is characterized by rapid increases in valuations of real property such as housing until they reach unsustainable levels relative to incomes and other economic elements, followed by a reduction in price levels.

Whether real estate bubbles can or should be identified or prevented, and whether they have broader macroeconomic importance or not are debated within and between different schools of economic thought, as detailed below. Some argue that the financial crisis of 2007–2010 was at least partially due to real estate bubbles, notably in the United States.

Links

• Center for Economic and Policy Research
• Is the Housing Bubble Collapsing? 10 Indicators to WatchPDF (153 KiB) Report by Dean Baker, June 2006
• When Bubbles BurstPDF (354 KiB), World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, April 2003.
• The Global House Price BoomPDF (367 KiB), World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, September 2004.
• California’s Real Estate Bubble by Fred E. Foldvary, covers the California, U.S., and global bubble from a libertarian perspective.
• Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey Comparative housing affordability for 100 large markets in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
• Are housing prices, household debt, and growth sustainable?PDF (342 KiB), Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, January 2006.
• The bursting of the US house price bubblePDF (401 KiB) Article by Stéphane Sorbe, French Treasury, July 2008
• Southern California’s Boom of the Eighties
• 35 years of house price in Vancouver BC as a rollercoaster currently the least affordable market in North America.

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