[quote=Rt.66]”Most dismiss the idea that America could suffer the same fate as Japan, but some of the differences are overstated. For example, some claim that Japan’s bubble was much bigger than America’s. Yet average house prices nationwide rose by 90% in America between 2000 and 2006, compared with a gain of 51% in Japan between 1985 and early 1991, when Japanese home prices peaked.”
From a housing price stand piont, WE are in MUCH worse shape than Japan was.[/quote]
The particular chart used by the Economist in this is misleading. They use US housing prices, but they compare against Japan’s LAND prices (and land prices in Japan were, due to it being rather in short supply there, already sky high before the bubble).
This set of charts gives a much better overview of exactly how high Japan’s HOUSING prices got at the peak:
