Brazil, with an emerging economy that is being watched worldwide, has "real estate fever" that bears uncomfortable comparisons with what was seen in the U.S. a few years, ago, according to a report from Reuters.
Although the country lacks a gauge of home prices nationwide, residential property values in Rio de Janeiro have risen 99 percent since 2008, with Sao Paolo not far behind at 81 percent, the news service said.
The real estate market in Christchurch, New Zealand, has come "almost to a standstill" in the wake of the earthquake that shook the city on Feb. 22, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The newspaper said local housing-industry experts expected that some suburbs were likely to be left as "virtual residential wastelands, with few people willing to return to live with them." They predicted suburbs farther from the city center and closer to the coastline would become more sought-after than they had been in the past.
Got an item you’d like us to consider for the Real Estate Roundabout? Send us an email.
