House prices are rising aggressively. No news there.
The level of economic output in our economy is rising too, and the V-shaped recovery puts that 'growth' in a category of 'quite fast'.
There is no special linked relationship between the two, but it may seem that they are complementary.
However, house price growth is in another realm.
For the 12 years from 1990 to 2002, the value of all New Zealand houses was about twice the country's annual economic output.
Then there was a burst until 2007, in the pre Global Financial Crisis frenzy, when these values rose to more than three times annual economic output. That was a jump of $350 billion of house price value over five years.
Following that there was another seven years when things flattened out, only to start rising again in 2015 through to 2016 with another $250 billion surge to then exceed $1 trillion.
That was followed by another flat period of about four years through to the easing of the pandemic.
Since then however, house values have risen $520 billion in just one year, the fastest jump in the shortest period.
From July 2020 to June 2021, total nominal annual GDP has been about $331 billion, a rise of $14 billion. During the same time, house values have risen to $1.65 trillion, a rise in the same year of $420 billion. In that year, the rise in house values will have exceeded the rise in economic activity in the country by an eye-popping 30 times.
It is little wonder there is growing scepticism about this renewed frenzy and where it's taking us.
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