After a protracted slump in sales, buyers are returning to the Israeli housing market.

The year 2011 had been marked by a statistically significant downturn in sales. Transactions were all but nonexistent during the last quarter of 2011.

After a few years of steep gains in central Israeli cities, why would buyers think prices would retreat, anyway? One reason is the state of the global economy. Israel came out of the serial crises in the last few years pretty well. But inevitably, the weaker the global economy, the more it must impact Israel through depressed demand for Israeli products. The worse the economic situation in Israel, goes the logic, the more home prices are likely to drop.

But the more significant reason had been the growing awareness of the Israeli consumer, as evident in last summer’s cost-of-living protests.

The high cost of housing in Israel was a key driver of the protest movement. As tents popped up like mushrooms on city squares and tree-lined plazas up and down the land, Jerusalem scrambled for ideas, such as freeing more land for development. But by the nature of things, solutions addressing the supply-side of the housing market will take a long time to impact pricing.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a gift today.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$120 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT