The crisis in the Italian real estate market shows no sign of slowing down. According to preliminary estimates released this morning by Istat, in the first quarter of 2014 the index relating to the price of houses purchased by families fell by 0,7% compared to the period October-December 2012 and by 4,6% on an annual basis . "Therefore, the trend towards a cyclical and tendential decline in house prices that has been going on for over two years is confirmed," writes the Institute of Statistics.
The cyclical downturn - explains Istat - is the synthesis of the decrease in prices of both existing homes (-0,8%) and, to a lesser extent, new ones (-0,1%). The cyclical declines are progressively attenuating compared to those recorded in the previous quarters.
The downward trend (-4,6%), more contained than that recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013, is the synthesis of the decreases on an annual basis in the prices of both existing homes (-5,3%) and new ones (-2,6 .6,0%). Even on a trend basis, there is a progressive downsizing of the decreases compared to what was observed in the previous quarters, after the minimum value (-2013%) recorded in the first three months of XNUMX.
As a result of these trends, the size of the differential in absolute value between the trend change in existing house prices and that in new house prices, after the low in the fourth quarter of 2013 (2,4%), has widened again , reaching 2,7%.
Finally, if the analysis is extended to the last four years, it emerges that house prices have fallen by 10,4%. The decline "is exclusively due to existing homes, whose prices fell by 15% in the same period, while the change in those of new homes is slightly positive (+0,8%)", concluded the Institute.
