Leaders | House prices

House prices are going ballistic

Policymakers need to keep their heads

ONE OBSESSION unites the rich world: housing. In the past year billions of people have been cooped up inside their homes for hours on end. As restrictions have eased, house prices have started to go through the roof. In America prices increased by 11% in the year to January, their fastest pace in 15 years. In New Zealand prices are up by 22%. Among the 25 countries that The Economist tracks, real house prices rose by 5% on average in the latest 12-month period, the quickest in over a decade.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Don’t stop me now”

Riding high: A special report on the future of work

From the April 10th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Leaders

A container ship Gunde Maersk sits docked at the Port of Oakland in California.

Tariffs will harm America, not induce a manufacturing rebirth

Donald Trump’s pursuit of tariffs will make the world poorer—and America, too 

Four test tubes in the shape of human figures, connected hand in hand, partially filled with a blue liquid. A dropper adds some liquid to the last figure

How to improve clinical trials

Involving more participants can lead to new medical insights


Container ship at sunrise in the Red Sea

Houthi Inc: the pirates who weaponised globalisation

Their Red Sea protection racket is a disturbing glimpse into an anarchic world


Donald Trump will upend 80 years of American foreign policy

A superpower’s approach to the world is about to be turned on its head

Rising bond yields should spur governments to go for growth

The bond sell-off may partly reflect America’s productivity boom

Much of the damage from the LA fires could have been averted

The lesson of the tragedy is that better incentives will keep people safe