Bank Leumi economist Eyal Raz wrote on the bank's blog that we are seeing the beginning of a halt in the rise of home prices. He says that 1,443 new privately built apartments were sold in September, the largest number of sales in a year. The number of sales reflects strong demand, continuing the trends of recent months.
Raz adds that the supply of new apartments still available for sale totaled 10,242, 5% more than in both August 2010 and September 2009.
The combination of an increase in sales and inventory is seen in the stable "months of supply figure" (the ratio between the number of apartments available for sale at the end of the month and the number of sales during the month), which was 7.3. Most importantly, most of the increase in the supply of new homes, compared with August, was in the Central District, where almost 40% of the total supply of new homes is located.
Raz concludes, "The rise in home prices will end. However, in order to bring about the rise in home prices to a halt, a steady increase in supply is necessary."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 4, 2010
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