China’s 2008 moment is happening: New home prices in 70 Chinese cities fell -0.4% MoM in January. Year-over-year, prices fell -3.1%

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China’s 2008 moment is happening: New home prices in 70 Chinese cities fell -0.4% MoM in January. Year-over-year, prices fell -3.1%
byu/RobertBartus inEconomyCharts

Factcheck:

The claim is accurate based on official data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), released in mid-February 2026 covering January 2026 figures for new home prices across 70 major cities.

  • Month-on-month (MoM): New home prices fell by 0.4% in January 2026, matching the decline in December 2025 (and marking the third consecutive month of such a drop).
  • Year-on-year (YoY): Prices fell by 3.1%, accelerating from a 2.7% decline in the prior month (December 2025), representing the steepest annual drop in seven months.

This data comes from Reuters calculations based on the NBS release, as well as confirmations from sources like Trading Economics, NHK, South China Morning Post (SCMP), and others reporting the same figures. For context:

  • Declines occurred in 62 of the 70 cities (up from 58 the previous month), with only 5 cities seeing rises and 3 flat.
  • The broader property sector remains in a prolonged downturn, with persistent weak demand despite government stimulus efforts—no clear stabilization yet, though some reports note minor signs of easing in resale (second-hand) prices or narrowed MoM drops in certain tiers.

The “China’s 2008 moment” phrasing is interpretive/opinion-based (comparing to the U.S. housing crash and financial crisis), but the specific price statistics cited are factual and correctly reported.Current time is February 16, 2026, so this refers to the most recent NBS data available.