Danke, Germany!

The United States ranks next to last among a group of 20 other nations, based on year-over-year home-price trends for the second quarter, according to an Economist.com report.

Of course, that depends on which house-price index you choose to use.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index ranks the nation as 19th on the list of 20 nations with a 3.2 percent year-over-year price drop in second-quarter 2007 -- just ahead of Germany with a 3.4 percent drop.

The U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight numbers would place the United States in the 16th position on the list in home-price growth, with a year-over-year price increase of 3.2 percent in the second quarter, ahead of Switzerland with a near-neutral 1.4 percent increase.

Meanwhile, Singapore had 21.1 percent year-over-year growth in the second quarter to top the list, followed by South Africa, 14.5 percent; New Zealand, 13.3 percent; Hong Kong, 10.6 percent; Sweden, 9.9 percent; Britain, 9.6 percent; Australia, 9.2 percent; France, 8.1 percent; China, 7.5 percent; and Denmark in 10th place with 7.4 percent.

In the past decade, South Africa has had the highest growth in home prices with a 380 percent gain, followed by Ireland, 251 percent; Britain, 211 percent; Spain, 189 percent; Australia, 149 percent; France, 139 percent; Sweden, 138 percent; Belgium, 131 percent; Denmark, 121 percent, and the United States, at 120 percent (according to S&P/Case-Shiller).

Hong Kong had a 38 percent drop in house prices from 1997 to 2007, while Japan had a 32 percent drop and Switzerland was third-lowest with an 18 percent rise in home prices.

The article questions, "If America is staring at a nasty housing crash, what does this say about the fate of frothy markets elsewhere?" and points to a research report by Morgan Stanley, which concludes that real house prices may be rising at a faster than sustainable clip in five countries -- Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Spain and Sweden, with Greece as a question mark.

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