Fall in housing prices in December

House Housing pricesHouse:Photo:Pixabay

Fall in housing prices continued in December

Housing prices dropped by 0.5 per cent in December, adjusted for seasonal variations. For 2017 as a whole, prices fell by 2.1 per cent.

 

It is the first time since 2013 that housing prices have dropped during the year seen as a whole.

– The negative trend in residential prices continued in the last month in 2017. Although it is normal with a drop in prices in December, the development is still weaker than normal, says CEO of Eiendom Norge (Real Estate Norway), Christian Vammervold Dreyer, who are responsible for the statistics.

In December, 2,903 homes were sold in Norway, which is a 7.4 per cent increase from the same month in 2016.

The negative trend in the housing market started last spring, and since then there have been several months of decline.

– For the first time since 2013, we have had a fall in housing prices the year viewed as one. When we entered 2017, we had a year of strong price growth behind us and few homes were for sale, and most therefore believed that price growth would continue. 2017 has been a reminder that the housing market can change rapidly, says Dreyer.

Far off the mark

Last year at the same time, Dreyer provided figures that showed that housing prices had risen by 8.3 per cent during the preceding year. Real Estate Norway predicted a national growth of housing prices of between 9 and 11 per cent in 2017, a forecast which turned out to be far off the mark.

– There were few – if any – who thought we would get such a development in 2017 when we gathered here last year, Dreyer said when he presented the numbers on Thursday.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today