(by Dr. Goldfinger)

The World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund predicts a “sharp fall” in house prices in the next 18 months.

Since 1997, house prices in such countries as Ireland, Britain, Spain, Australia, the Netherlands, and Sweden boosted sharply up to 50%."Just as the current upswing in house prices has largely been a global phenomenon, any downturn is also likely to be highly synchronized across countries, with corresponding implications for the world economy," said the report by Marco Terrones, a senior IMF economist.

Some analysts doubt IMF forecast. "For a number of very good reasons we believe the IMF is needlessly scaring homeowners. They cite increasing interest rates as a reason for precipitating a crash. But opinion is that if rates go up at all it will be by just 0.25% in November and that will be the peak,” said Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents.

As for the U.S., its gains are predicted to slow rather than prices to fall sharply.