Housing Price Index
According to the Korea Appraisal Board, Canada, China and Britain recorded an increase in housing price of 9.69%, 9.37% and 5.5% during the first seven months of this year, respectively. In the same period, South Korea recorded an apartment sale price index of 1.37%. The average house price in July was 485.44 million won (US$434,470) in Canada, 319.14 million won (US$285,630) in Britain, 317.95 million won (US$284,560) in the United States and 283.14 million won (US$254,300) in South Korea.
The S&P Case-Shiller index rose 4.69% between January and July this year and 5.1% between July 2015 and July this year. It increased 20.33% from the level recorded during the global financial crisis in late 2008. South Korea’s index, in the meantime, showed a significant growth in 2012 and 2013 but the rate of increase has declined since 2014.
The National Association of Realtors recently announced that the average house price in the US was US$284,900 in July, adding that the median housing price was US$366,600 in New York and US$480,000 on LA. It also mentioned that the continuous year-on-year increase in the average price can be attributed to robust economic fundamentals, such as better employment conditions and low interest rates, defying the slump in the real economy and uncertainties in the financial market.
According to the China Index Research Academy, the 100 largest cities in China posted an average house price of 12,009 yuan per square meter, up 12.39% from a year earlier. This has to do with the People’s Bank of China’s expansionary monetary policy.