“Nothing is going to be like it was 10 years ago,” admitted Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon when he was asked on Army Radio whether he agrees with economists who hold that a moderate reduction in housing prices will be enough to avoid creating an economic crisis. Kahlon said, “I think that’s right. We don’t want to create crises in any area. We want a normal economy.”
The March 3 interview with Kahlon, a year after the March 2015 elections, took place amid reports of a continuing rise in housing prices. Only last month, the government appraiser reported an 8% increase in housing prices in 2015, when the Israeli public still hoped that the real estate bubble had reached its breaking point and was about to burst.