This move may in part have been helped by a tendency of vendors to adopt more realistic expectations, as evidenced by a rise in vendor discounts – that is, the extent to which a property sells below its listed price. These discounts had risen gradually as the market weakened through 2011; more recently, the degree of vendor discounting has returned to more normal levels.
This early euro-period is remarkable: it was one of the three most outstanding periods of price stability performance in Germany since the 1950s. Since last summer high energy costs, in part linked to the external value of the euro, and demand shifts due to the European food crisis have taken their toll.