User:Nick Gardner /Sandbox

Beginning in 1997, the U.S. witnessed house price appreciation that was highly unusual in historical terms. Between 1997 and 2006, real home prices increased by nearly 85 percent.1 Sustained price increases near this magnitude have only been observed once during the twentieth century, in the period immediately after World War II2 (See Figure 1). In fact, during the period 2001 through 2005, the annual rate of house price appreciation accelerated. The S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Index shows annual price appreciation rising from slightly over eight and one-half percent in 2001 to more than 15 percent in 2005.

JEC Oct 2007

The price of the average UK house has risen by 187% to £179,000 since February 1996. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6090972.stm BBC news 2006 Friday, 27 October 2006

between 1995 and 2007 I prices more than quadrupled

real interest rate allowed the “US to continue on this low-interest, high-liquidity asset boom”.9