Gauging the end of global housing bust

Overseas property analysis site Global Property Guide has declared the global housing bust "effectively over."

Out of 36 countries, 19 had seen year-over-year price increases in the first quarter of 2010, the site said in a recent article. Those were the results of the site's latest survey of official house-price statistics around the world.

Moreover, while 15 out of the 17 remaining countries saw prices fall, the rate of decline for eight of those 15 slowed. Only Ireland, Bulgaria and Thailand showed no signs of recovery, the site said.

Several European countries have rebounded from last year's first-quarter slump. House prices in Finland, for example, rose an inflation-adjusted 11 percent, while Norway's home prices rose 7.7 percent. The United Kingdom's house prices jumped 5.4 percent. Prices in France and Germany remained mostly flat, each rising less than a percentage point year-over-year.

Prices in Spain, Iceland, Lithuania and Latvia still saw year-over-year declines, but smaller ones compared to last year. In the U.S., prices were down slightly, 0.23 percent, at the end of the first quarter. Canada also saw a slight drop, 0.71 percent.

The site warned of a possible housing bubble in Asia, which saw double-digit year-over-year price increases in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Hong Kong saw a rise of nearly 30 percent in home prices.

Prices fell 1 percent in Indonesia, while Thailand saw a decline of about 20 percent -- largely due to political instability, the site said.

For a list of Global Property Guide's house-price data sources, click here.

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