In recent years Tel Aviv’s real estate values have risen slowly and steadily. In 2003, the average price of an apartment was 896,100 shekels ($226,374); in 2008, it was 1,205,400 shekels ($304,509), according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, a government agency.
The economic downturn has slowed the market. By the middle of 2008, “the market froze,” Yoram Indik, a Tel Aviv-based real-estate broker, said. “People didn’t want to sell, buyers didn’t want to buy.”
But even though the pace of sales has slowed, housing prices are generally still on the rise. For the first quarter of 2009, the average price of an apartment was 1,283,000 shekels ($324,113) according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.