If you look at the run-up to the peak in the last few cycles — 1973, 1989, 2008 — rates always rose alongside prices (much like they’re doing now, as we approach the expected 2026 peak). It required lending institutions to find innovative ways to attract borrowers into the winner’s curse phase of the cycle (the final two years), regardless of cost-of-living pressures. Homer Hoyt noted this reoccurring pattern in the run-up to the peak in his book One Hundred Years of

In the 1880s, Judge James G Maguire of the Superior Court of the city and county of San Francisco gave a speech to the New York Anti-Poverty Society. He said: ‘I was one day walking along Kearney Street in San Francisco when I noticed a crowd in front of a show window…I took a glance myself, but I saw only a poor picture of an uninteresting landscape. Source: henrygeorge.org [Click to open in a new window] ‘ As I was turning away my eye caught these words underneath the pictu

Today we follow on from Fred Harrison’s interview I brought to you last week. In that interview, Fred concludes that this cycle will continue to a peak in 2026 but be followed by war. This is why Fred sees this cycle as different from others. In Fred’s words: ‘ In my view the 18-year cycle will continue to extend, house prices will peak in 2026. ‘ The end of the cycle is 2028 – the depths of the recession. ‘ But unlike previous end of 18 year cycles this one will be a particu

An article caught my attention this week in The Australian about owners selling the air above their apartment blocks for profit. Take a look: ‘ Eight owners of a Sydney apartment block recently banded together to sell off the airspace above their building for almost $1m and the idea is catching on. ‘ Rooftop property development specialist Warren Livesey estimates the airspace above strata unit blocks in Australia is an untapped $100bn plus market. ‘ He has been selling Sydn