Residential real estate price indices as financial soundness indicators: methodological issues

The purpose of this conference on real estate indicators and financial stability is “to promote the development of reliable, timely and consistent statistics on real estate prices” in order to support policy initiatives to promote macroeconomic stability. The recent volatility of asset prices and the Asian financial crisis of 1997 have focused attention on the role of asset markets and, in particular, real estate markets in the generation of financial crises and economic instability across nations. With contagion effects driven by fast and large flows of capital, such national crises threaten global financial stability. Hence the need for monitoring devices and policy instruments to respond to the heightened potential for asset market induced global financial instability.