US Property Prices up 12.1%
They say that when the US sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. Well here is one cold we in Northern Ireland would not mind catching. Just a cold mind you, not a pandemic!
Standard & Poor/Case Shiller Index is a very closely watched house price index. It measures single family house prices across 20 US cities and the June 2013 results showed that house prices were up 12.1% from June 2012. Las Vegas and San Francisco rose by an eye-watering 25%.
It is unlikely that growth will continue at this rate as supply and demand re-balances. The rate of new builds in the US has been increasing all year so it is expected that with greater choice will come lower growth.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of 2013 pans out. Generally a strong US economy is good for the world economy and growth in house prices in one of the world’s largest economies can only be positive news for the Northern Ireland housing market.