China real estate crash is worse than official data

Judging by China's official statistics, the nation's housing market has been remarkably resilient in the face of tepid economic growth and record defaults by developers. New-home prices have slipped just 2.4% from a high in August 2021, government figures show, while those for existing homes have dropped 6%. But the picture emerging from property agents and private data providers is far more dire. These figures show existing-home prices falling at least 15% in prime neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas like Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as in more than half of China's tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Existing homes near Alibaba…