Monday, October 4, 2010

China Property Prices rose 9.3% in August

Property prices in 70 major cities across China increased 9.3 percent in August, down 1% from July. This is was after a round of tightening by the central government that should have put the breaks on even more severely. 1% is noise. The new restrictions applied mostly on purchases of second and third homes. Higher downpayment requirements, for example. What does this indicate to me? It indicates that buying clubs are dominating the market. When you are running a buying club (where you keep passing around real estate to members, ratcheting up the price each time and getting the bank to fork over additional $ on a mortgage) you can't exactly stop. 


The lesson from California, Nevada, etc, is you can always find a rube to be your straw buyer, or your first time buyer in this case. If central policy that should put the brakes on legitimate sales did not put the brakes on the bulk of sales . . . then that implies the bulk of sales are not legitimate.

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