Housing Prices: No One Has A Clue!

As the outlook for housing prices continues to get bleaker the interesting thing to note is that the snoozing economists at our major banks don't seem to know what the hell is going on. Observe this quote:

Jacques du Toit, Absa property economist, expects house price inflation to average 12% this year....

Standard Bank released its equivalent index earlier this week, which reflected July house price inflation of 6%...

Two economists at two of our biggest banks have a nealry 100% discrepancy in price growth outlook? That's just a tad worrying to me. I don't care how different their methodology or how client base is, a disparity that big means we're moving into into a time when economists are literally pulling numbers out of thin air because they have no idea what the market will do.