Is China's Housing Market Heading Toward a US-Style Crash?

43 Pages Posted: 18 Aug 2012 Last revised: 7 Mar 2013

See all articles by Gregory M. Stein

Gregory M. Stein

University of Tennessee College of Law

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

This article aims to determine whether China is heading toward a U.S.-style market crash in its housing market. Rather than attempting to maintain any suspense, I will disclose here that my conclusion is, 'Who knows?' China and the United States have dramatically different histories, cultures, governments, economies, and legal systems. Anyone who claims to have a definitive answer to this question is overly confident.

My more modest goals in this article are to examine the available evidence and see which way it seems to point. The article begins by listing and describing several different ways in which the American housing market failed. It then evaluates the consequences of these failures for the U.S. housing market. Next, the article demonstrates some of the key respects in which the Chinese market differs from the market in the United States. This central portion of the article emphasizes just how difficult it is to make predictions about what might happen in one nation’s housing market based on the experiences of another nation that differs in so many significant ways. Finally, the article provides a description of some of the worrisome similarities between the Chinese and American housing markets. To the extent the previous analysis may have comforted the reader into believing that the Chinese market is unlikely to experience a downturn anytime soon, this last discussion will create some apprehension by highlighting some of the ways in which China might, in fact, be heading down the same path as the United States.

Keywords: real estate, property, mortgages, housing, Chinese real estate, market crash, US-China comparisons

Suggested Citation

Stein, Gregory M., Is China's Housing Market Heading Toward a US-Style Crash? (2012). Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2012, University of Tennessee Legal Studies Research Paper No. 198, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2131402

Gregory M. Stein (Contact Author)

University of Tennessee College of Law ( email )

1505 West Cumberland Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37996
United States
865-974-6812 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://law.utk.edu/directory/gregory-m-stein/

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