The housing bubble in Europe (2000-2015): Dimension and types

The aim of this article is to identify the European Economic Area (EEA) countries that experienced a housing bubble during the period 2000-2015; and classify them according to the evolution of the fundamentals of house prices during the rising phase through cluster analysis. According to International Monetary Fund criteria, two out of three EEA countries experienced a housing bubble in this period, and the price corrections during housing price bust averaged 38%. The cluster analysis indicates the existence of three types of housing bubbles in Europe during this period: one encompasses all post-communist EEA countries from Central and Eastern Europe; a second one consisting of Ireland, Greece, Iceland, Spain, Cyprus, Italy and Malta; and a third one composed by Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.