Monday, October 24, 2005

Now their buying up Jerusalem

More evidence the Compulsive Real Estate Disorder that has infected our community is having repercussions.

Haaretz :


The real estate market in Jerusalem is booming, as the improved security situation has prompted many Jews, especially from the United States, to purchase apartments in the capital for use solely during the holidays. But the flourishing market in luxury flats is also causing concern among residents and urban planners, who believe that rising prices are responsible for driving people out of the city by making housing unaffordable for most people...
Realtors in the capital say that over the past year and a half, a few hundred apartments have been purchased by foreign residents. Over the past 10 months, apartment prices have jumped 40 percent (see box). The average cost of a five-room apartment in the city's more expensive neighborhoods, which include Rehavia, Talbiyeh, Kiryat Shmuel, the German and Greek Colonies, and Yemin Moshe, jumped from $420,000 in 2004 to $583,000 at present, and the average price per square meter has risen from $3,000 to over $4,000 over the past three years...
The phenomenon is also taking a toll on middle-class Jerusalemites, who see their dream of buying a home isappear as neighborhoods go upscale. In the past, foreign buyers would concentrate in areas like Talbiyeh and Yemin Moshe, which are within walking distance of the Western Wall or the Great Synagogue. Recently, however, the buying wave has also reached more distant neighborhoods, such as Beit Hakerem and Makor Haim. The southern neighborhood of Baka, for example, once a middle-class bastion, is now beyond the means of many local home buyers. "You don't see any Israeli buyers in neighborhoods like Baka anymore," said David Leib, manager of Shiran, the city's main real estate database for brokers.
posted by Yeshiva Orthodoxy
at 10:38 AM

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