New information continues to emerge from well informed Industry sources about what might happen to Real Estate prices in Israel in the short term. Ahead of the College of Management annual real estate conference at the City Tower in Ramat Gan beginning today, Rina Degani, CEO of Geocartography Knowledge stated that she believes prices will not rise because Investor purchases will slow down due to decreasing profit margins and she also believes that Contractors will again build 31,000 housing units next year, which is the average annual demand by the country's Jewish sector. 

 

If prices do continue to rise, something will have to give in the average family's budget because data from earlier this year indicated that the average Israeli had to invest the equivalent of 68 work months in order to buy an apartment, while two years ago, 56 work months was enough. 

 

Meanwhile in Jerusalem specifically, current demand for apartments remains very strong.  A report for September 2009, issued by Levi Itzhak Assessing and Surveying Co. Ltd who does extensive surveys on the housing market, indicated that the average time for an apartment to be on the market in upscale Jerusalem neighborhoods such as the German Colony was 33 days.  The average time on the market for Jerusalem in general was only 23 days.  The Jerusalem Real Estate market is far more complex than other cities in the country due to the strong interest from "foreign buyers" so some of the projections about future prices take much more analysis.  For right now, the demand remains strong.