Globally, the real estate market now seems well on its way along a path of stable growth, at least as regards prices which, according to the IMF, increased by more than 2016% in 2. Today the global price index is positioned only three points below the maximum peak recorded in the first quarter of 2008. Situations of price overheating seem limited and above all do not concern countries affected by the bursting of the 2007-2008 bubble. The absence of critical situations at the country level hides an increasingly marked fragmentation of the real estate market which in some cases at the local level shows very heterogeneous trends.
In China, prices in the top 70 cities grew by an average of 2016% in 8. Starting from November 2016, and even more from January of this year, however, the market has shown signs of a slowdown, not so much in prices as in trading. The slowdown is the result of a series of initiatives taken by the government which, with the slogan "homes are for living in, not for speculation", has attempted to prevent further inflation of a real estate bubble. In the USA, after the long phase of decline, since 2012 house prices have recovered much of the lost ground. At the end of 2016, the Case Shiller 20 index returned to 2007 levels. In recent years, skilled workers in the country have concentrated geographically in the so-called superstar cities (characterized by higher property prices), contributing to making the already unequal distribution of wealth in the country.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the prices of homes owned by individuals without a college degree grew by only 2012% from 2016 to 0,2, compared to the average +10,8% recorded in the prices of homes owned by those with a graduation diploma.
In Italy, the long phase of falling house prices may have come to an end. In the fourth quarter of 2016, the prices of residential properties recorded an annual growth of 0,1%; albeit slight, it is still the first positive change since the fourth quarter of 2011. On the transaction side, the data have continued to be positive since 2014. The number of sales at the end of 2016 reached 528.800, more or less the same value recorded in 1997 and equal to 350.000 units less than the maximum peak reached in 2006 (877 thousand). The growth is observable in all areas of the country.
