More than three quarters of real estate executives predict that housing prices will fall in 2009, according to a Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar Real Estate Survey for March 2009-March 2010. The survey results belie recent comments by contractors that buyers who are waiting for prices to fall were wasting their time.
43% of the respondents in the survey predict that housing prices will fall by 10-20% this year, 14% predict that housing prices will fall by over 20%, and 21% believe that they will fall by less than 10%.
However, 74% of the respondents believe that housing prices will rebound in 2010. 47% of the respondents said that housing prices will rise in the second half of next year, and 27% predict that prices will rise in the first half of the year. 26% of respondents believe that the recovery will only begin in 2011 or later.
Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar partner and head of the real estate industry group Amity Weber, said, "We're already seeing real estate companies absorbing heavy losses, and we believe that in order to survive, they'll have to lower prices in the Israeli real estate market. The need to lower prices is due in part to the tightening of credit and the reduction in the amount given in mortgages. Other trends pushing toward lower prices are the surging unemployment and the rising uncertainty in the Israeli market and among potential buyers, who will not rush to buy apartments at the high prices now being offered."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 5, 2009
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