Lots of real estate experts and analysts had predicted that housing prices would settle down on higher interest rates, and that the sellers’ market in most Norwegian cities would turn into a buyers’ market. They were wrong, at least so far.
New statistics for August released this week showed another overall increase in housing prices, up 1.9 percent according to the real estate brokers’ organization Eiendom Norge. That means the average price of a home in Norway rose 9.1 percent from August of last year, to NOK 4.6 million (USD 470,000 at current exchange rates against a very strong US dollar).
“The prices rose powerfully in August,” said the organization’s director Henning Lauridsen. It’s “normal” that housing prices rise in August, he added, but the growth this year was particularly strong given the big jump in monthly electricity bills, rising inflation and economic uncertainty tied to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
A total of 9,520 homes were sold in August, 0.6 percent more than in August last year. There’s been a big decline, meanwhile, in the sales of new homes. They fell 38 percent from July of last year to this past July, and housing starts are down too.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
