Canada led the world in the most egregiously inflated home prices in the past few years, but New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden were other top-risk contenders. Now, high debt levels are having similar demand and price-depressing impacts in many countries all at once. See Sweden is facing its ‘day of reckoning’ as house prices plummet:
“We do expect [house prices] to drop a few more percentage points … So it could go from 20% to 25% perhaps, but if that happens that would mean that it’s pretty much the pandemic uptick that is being reversed,” Magnusson told CNBC.
Sweden isn’t the only European country experiencing a plunging property market post-pandemic, with some economists forecasting a similar downturn of between 20% and 25% in Germany.
As spending retracts under the weight of debt and evaporating home equity, commodity demand and global GDP are on the chopping block. Lumber (below since 1998), down more than 75% from the 2021 manic peak, sees the forest through the trees (sorry, I couldn’t help it) and is leading other commodities to follow.
Editor’s Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
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