Who ever said increased gas prices would only affect consumer spending was not in the real estate business. As the cost of fuel increases it has rippling affects in the housing market as well.
With gas prices now over the 4 dollars per gallon in the United States, now natural gas is going up as well. When this happens home buyers look for smaller homes to keep the energy bills down. The big kicker is home buyers look for homes closer to their work.
What does all this mean. It means the condos and town houses that are close to down town, which is close to work for many blue collared professionals will see an increase in buyer traffic and sales. Now days living 20 driving minutes closer to work can add up to hundreds of dollars a month in savings. When home buyers add these savings up over years they will be in the house, and assuming gas prices keep going up, it makes the home buying decision that much easier.
So if you are wondering how the United States compares with other places in the world, here is a list of gas prices
Belgium 8.44
Brazil 6.02
Canada 5.49
Denmark 9.31
Finland 8.90
France 8.06
Germany 9.20
Guatemala 7.38
Hong Kong 8.33
India 5.15
Israel 7.95
Italy 8.78
Japan 5.83
Netherlands 10.11
Norway 10.37
Portugal 8.90
Sierra Leone 18.43
Singapore 6.06
South Korea 7.38
Sweden 8.71
Turkey 10.14
United Kingdom 8.56
From looking at this data you can only assume that gas prices are not going to go down in the United States any time soon. In fact, it looks like 4 dollars per gallon is a good deal when you compare our price of fuel with other countries.
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