As home prices soar beyond reach, we have a government inquiry almost designed not to tell us why

By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Never has an inquiry into the skyrocketing price of homes been more urgent.

Rarely has one been as insultingly ill-suited as the one under way right now.

Midway through last year in the midst of COVID, the average forecast of the 22 leading economists who took part in The Conversation mid-year survey was for no increase in home prices whatsoever in the year ahead (actually for slight falls).
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