Graph 3 Migration and house prices  The price signals given by the housing market thus have to be treated with caution. Compared to markets for financial assets, the housing market is relatively slow to adjust, with long and variable  2  6  Bordo and Jeanne (2002).
BIS Review 7/2004  times to close sales, and with, beforehand, much uncertainty about final closing prices, if deals are even reached. Aggregated statistics on house price movements are “noisy” indicators of the future outlook for the housing sector. Past prices are not always a good indicator of future prices. Also, data on residential real estate prices are not always of a high quality.