From the SMH blog:
Christopher Joye’s warning that house prices near record levels could be in for a major correction of up to 20 per cent is definitely causing a stir. Hundreds of comments have been added to the article, which is by far today’s top rating yarn.
In what’s shaping up as a bit of a fashion around housing market forecasts – think Rory Robertson sending Steven Keen on a hike up Mt Kosciuszko – it’s also prompted economist Stephen ‘The Kouk’ Koukoulas to offer Joye a cash bet with odd of 10-1: if prices fall 20 per cent or more over the next three years, Koukoulas will pay Joye $10,000, and if they don’t he will get just $1000.
In a second part to the bet, Koukoulas will pay $1000 if house prices rise 10 per cent or more over the next three years, and will receive $1000 if they fail to rise by that much.
Following their correspondence on Twitter, it’s not looking like Joye has accepted the bet.
It’s a natural evolution of our bubble economy that the public sphere be increasingly clogged with such speculative drivel. Here is the Twitter exchange:
