Is the global housing slump over?

In Australia house prices have risen for the past three months. In America a widely watched index of housing values has risen by 1.6% from its low in January, and housebuilders’ share prices have done twice as well as the overall stockmarket. In the euro area the property market looks steady. “[M]ost of the drag from housing on gdp growth from now on should be marginal,” wrote analysts at JPMorgan Chase, a bank, in a recent report about America. “[W]e believe the peak negative drag from the recent housing-market slump to private consumption is likely behind us,” wrote wonks at Goldman Sachs, another bank, about South Korea.