The Gazit-Globe Institute index of housing market prices, based on measurements of repeat deals, shows a 2.3% rise in housing prices in the first quarter of the year, sources inform "Globes."
The Ministry of Finance has presented a clear picture of falling prices in the housing market in recent weeks, following stagnation in the rate of deals, the absence of investors, and first-home buyers waiting for lotteries for buyer fixed price subsidized housing.
Only recently, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that housing prices fell 0.5% in February (preliminary figures subject to revision). At the same time, the average housing price in Israel, a figure also affected by the change in the mix of housing and regions in which it is purchased - was down 2.9% in the first quarter, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. In addition, the Ministry of Finance took care to reveal the Chief Government Appraiser's index, which showed a 0.6% first-quarter dip in housing prices.
The index of the Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute in the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center is based on a method similar to that of the US Case-Shiller Home Prices Index. It is designed to eliminate as much as possible the existing variance between one housing unit and another. The index showed that prices rose in the first quarter, following a 5.9% increase in housing prices last year (and no change in prices in the fourth quarter of 2016). Despite the recent stagnation in housing market deals, and all the more in repeat deals involving exactly the same housing units, the Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute said that its index was based on at least 180 deals each month, as reported to the Israel Tax Authority.
Furthermore, in the opinion of Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute CEO Dr. Efrat Tolkowsky, "In view of what I saw in the sales figures last week and in the preceding month, I have reason to assume that the Central Bureau of Statistics will also upwardly revise its February figures, and reported 0.5% decrease will not remain."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on May 28, 2017
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