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Global houseprices Downdraft 全球房价日渐衰落 European house prices are finding it harder to defygravity; 欧洲房价难以扭转乾坤; From the late 1990s home prices across the richworld soared relentlessly upward, borne aloft on agale of cheap capital. In 2006 some overvaluedmarkets began crashing to earth. Until recently,however, the correction seemed remarkably contained. American and Irish home pricesplunged, giving up all the gains of the previous decade, but others have fallen far lesssteeply. Some markets faltered and then stabilised. The latest update of The Economist sglobal house-price indicators hints that this period of post-crisis calm may be coming to anend. 上世纪90年代起，发达国家的房价借廉价资本之风冲上云霄，高居不下。2006年部分被高估的楼市开始回落。然而直至近日，回落势头似乎才得以控制。 美国、爱尔兰的住房房价急遽下滑，前十年积攒的楼市盈余全部打了水漂。较前两国而言，其他国家的房价下滑则较为平缓。一些楼市虽起伏不定，随后却能趋于稳定。本刊最新更新的全球房价指数暗示，暴风雨前的宁静期或将告终。 Europe s gravity-defying act has been the most striking. Most of its largest housingmarketsGermany is the big exceptionboomed in the early 2000s and stumbled duringthe crisis. But fortunes have diverged since then. Irish prices plunged and continue to sink.House prices in most other markets are still well above fair value, which we define as thelong-run average of two measures: the price-to-income ratio, a gauge of affordability, andthe price-to-rents ratio, an analogue of the price-to-earnings ratio used to judge the equityvalue of listed firms. Spanish markets are still overvalued by a quarter on these measures,although prices are falling. In Belgium and France, prices are well above fair value and theycontinue to rise. | 
