Israel's population stands at 7,509,000 million from the beginning of 2010

The Central Bureau of Statistics reported today. 75.4% of the population is Jewish, 20.3% Arabs, and 4.3% others (immigrants and their families who are not registered as being Jewish by the Ministry of Interior). During 2009, Israel's population grew by 1.8% - a rate of increase that has remained stable since 2003. Over the past year 160,000 babies were born in Israel, while 14,500 new immigrants came to the country - an increase over the 2008 figure of 13,700. Furthermore,the Jewish Agency reported that immigration in 2009 was higher than any of the past 10 years. As housing starts every year cannot match up to the pupulation growth, "the writing is on the wall" as regards to property prices in the country for the years to come. Settlement freeze ,if finally carried out, will add to the demand within the green line.

Number of new apartments for sale grows smaller and drops by 22%

The number of new apartments for construction ,by private developers, that remain for sale in Israel is growing smaller and smaller. At the end of February 2010, there were only 8,540 such apartments, a 22% decrease since the end of February 2009.Of the 8,540 above mentioned units, some 8,180 are currently being built, and 360 were completed in the last 15 months, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).Some 1,530 new apartments were sold to the public throughout the country in February 2010, a 14% increase from January of the same year.

Mortgages jump 56%

The real estate market boom in the past two years has resulted in a 56% increase in the value of new mortgages. At the same time, the average apartment price has risen 30%, the Bank of Israel reported today.New mortgages totaled NIS 65 billion in 2009, up from NIS 41 billion in 2008.The figures indicate that the low prevailing interest rate caused borrowers to prefer variable rate mortgages, which accounted for 77% of all new mortgages in February 2009, an all-time high. Later during the year, as expectations grew that the interest rate would be raised, the proportion of variable rate mortgages fell to 51% of all mortgages."Household debt relative to disposable income was unchanged at 60% in
Israel, lower than in other countries, such as the US, the UK, and eurozone
countries," quoted the Bank.

Home prices continue rise

The average price of a four-room apartment crossed the NIS 1 million threshold for the first time.
Belying commitments by Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias to reduce apartment prices in 2010, prices rose at beginning of the year.
Apartment prices rose 1.6% in January, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)reported last week
Property prices in Israel have been rising steadily since January 2009 by 19% in the 12 months through January 2010. The CBS reports that the average apartment price at the end of December 2009 was NIS 929,500. The average price of a four-room apartment, the most common size among Israeli homebuyers, crossed the NIS 1 million threshold for the first time, to NIS 1.02 million.

PRIVATE BIDS FOR 74 RBS RBS "G" LAND PLOTS already submitted recently

The Israel Land Authority accepted bids for 74 "bnei beitcha"(build your own house) houses in RBS Gimmel Many of this bids came from a surprising number of secular families from the old Bet Shemesh.These families want their children to settle in Bet Shemesh and viewed this as the opportunity to make that become a reality., yet there are other secular and traditional families who want to "upgrade" and this is their only opportunity since nothing else is being planned in the whole city to cater for their needs.

RBS residents could soon add 40sqm to their homes

The city of Bet Shemesh is planning to allow all home owners whose properties are 10 years old or older in all of Ramat bet Shemsh A and part of B
to legally add an up to 40 square meters to their existing homes .
This will increase the cty's revenues twofold: by charging more rates (arnona) and by collecting fees for building licences.
They also aim at cutting the red tape, this will encourage people to aply for a building permit and not have to do it illegally with all the penalties involved.
In addition to the above measure, the municipality plans to employ more inspectors to "catch" those that add to their properties illegally.

Only 15% of rental contracts quoted in US$

Israelis have increasingly followed the call of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer to stop fixing the prices of apartment rentals in dollars over the past two years as a result of the weakening of the greenback. "In the last two years rental agreements have switched from quoting dollar prices to prices in shekel," said Bank of Israel economists in a report to be published in the forthcoming Recent Economic Developments issue.Until 2007 contracts quoting dollar prices constituted about 90 percent of rental contracts; today the figure is 15%.In reaction to the highinflation era of the 1980s, Israelis began to quote prices of various items on the domestic market in dollars. In the housing market this practice continued for years even after inflation had fallen, until the recent fall in the dollar's value.