Third quarter marks a recovery in the housing market
Housing affordability remained high throughout the three quarters of 2020. In the third quarter, housing affordability increased in Estonia (+2.8) and Latvia (+4.1), while decreasing in Lithuania (-0.9), compared with the same quarter last year. In Estonia, mortgage loan fee discounts by banks were significant enough to improve housing affordability, although apartment price growth slightly exceeded net wage growth. Meanwhile, the Latvian market continues to experience higher wage increase than average apartment price growth. The index dip in Lithuania is still caused by the growth of apartment prices exceeding that of average household income.
