Gov't Assessor: Home prices up in Q2

The average price of a four-room apartment rose by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the Government Assessor.

The Government Assessor today reports that the average price of a four-room apartment rose by 1.9% in the second quarter compared with the preceding quarter and by 1% compared with the corresponding quarter of 2011.

"During the second quarter of 2012, the average price of apartments covered rose, along with an increase in the number of apartment sales compared with the preceding quarter," states the survey. "There was a small rise in the average price in most towns in the second quarter, compared with the preceding quarter. In some towns, there was either no change in the average price, or it fell."

The report added, "Echoes of last summer's social protest, combined with global economic instability and uncertainty, especially in Europe, together with measures and declarations by the government and the Bank of Israel, are accompanying the real estate market in general and the residential market in particular, and have affected its conduct for the past year. Inelastic demand over the past year began to be released during the quarter covered, partly because of government decisions about the housing chapter in the Trajtenberg report late in the preceding quarter, which reduced uncertainty."

There has been no change in the supply of homes, which stood at 20,665 housing units at the end of April 2012.

The average price of a four-room apartment, the type of home covered in the Government Assessor's housing survey, rose in 11 of the 16 towns covered. The largest increase was in Tel Aviv, up 6% in the second quarter over the preceding quarter, to NIS 2.44 million, followed by 5% rises in Eilat and Modi'in. Price rose 4% in Haifa to NIS 1.18 million, and by 2% in Jerusalem to NIS 1.77 million.

Prices were unchanged in Ashdod (NIS 1.14 million) Rishon LeZion (at NIS 1.37 million), and Petah Tikva (NIS 1.35 million); and fell 3% in Herzliya to NIS 1.72 million.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 12, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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