Why do house prices just keep marching higher?

Other asset prices may be dropping off as the second wave of Covid hits. But house prices just keep on climbing. John Stepek looks at what’s behind their unstoppable rise.

Property for sale signs
It will take more than a global pandemic to dent our dysfunctional property market
(Image credit: © JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Before I get started this morning – don’t forget to answer our 20th anniversary questions! Best answers will be published in next week’s mag – check out the questions here.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.