I recently posted an
article on our Blog that is essentially a translation of the key points from the French National Federation of Estate Agents (FNAIM) first quarter report for 2008.
The report paints a much rosier picture of the housing market than many agents at the coalface are witnessing. At a guess, it's the large cities llike Paris, Lyon, Marseilles and Bordeaux that skew the resale figures upwards. But in the smaller towns and countryside agents are reporting a 5% decrease in property prices.
In any case, FNAIM say that prices are down in France as a whole by around 4% in the first quarter this year (+3.3%) compared to the same period in 2007 (+7.2%).
As regards whether or not it's a good time to buy,
apparantly it is.
The euro has doubled in value against the dollar since its launch in 2000.
Sterling is at an all time low. As long as the Bank of England is focussed on interest rates and not on inflation then analysts say that sterling's continued decline is assured.
France is aiming to bring inflation back to below 2% in the next year according to Christian Noyer of Banque de France.