Where High Interest Rates Have Sent Home Prices Sliding

The severity of the housing market slump really depends on your vantage point. The recent decline has pushed the market back to about prepandemic levels, after a period when prices rose 20 percent a year. From that perspective, “it’s not bad prices,” said Georgio Hadad, a broker in Huddinge for Fastighetsbyran, a real estate company. “But once you’ve tasted this 20 percent increase, it’s bad.”

It has been a long time since Sweden experienced this kind of housing downturn — not since the 1990s, when a housing bubble burst and took down the banking system. Strict reforms later helped Sweden through the 2008 financial crisis.

Ms. Eiswohld, who sold her apartment as prices were sliding, had the misfortune of apartment shopping in the spring of 2021, when house prices were on an upswing.

“I scrolled and scrolled” through an online real estate site, she said, “but the prices were so high.” She finally found her place in Huddinge after spotting a listing, getting a private early viewing and putting in a bid instantly, offering more than the asking price.

In those days, when people were flocking to the suburbs, it wasn’t uncommon to have 40 to 50 people view one house, said Mr. Hadad, especially those seeking detached houses with gardens. Minutes after advertisements were posted, buyers would make large bids and ask for the listing to be taken down.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/21/business/sweden-housing-prices-interest-rates.html