Starting Here In Southeastern
Starting here in southeastern China and now spreading north and west across the country, the number of homes changing hands has dropped precipitously. Faced with few buyers, sellers are starting to cut their prices for residential and commercial real estate. Brokers describe price decreases of as little as 4 percent over the past year in Harbin in northeastern China, for example. But the volume of transactions there has plunged by two-thirds.

China’s real estate downturn is occurring as exports are also slowing sharply when adjusted for inflation and calculated in yuan. China’s accumulating economic problems pose a challenge for the United States and the European Union.

Worried about job losses, China pushed down the value of the yuan slightly against the dollar last month for the first time in 26 months, a step that would make Chinese exports more competitive at the risk of raising trade tensions with Washington and Brussels.

This downturn in property has led to what economists describe as a broader deceleration in China’s rate of economic growth, although at nearly 10 percent it remains higher than in most countries. Fresh evidence of that economic slowdown emerged on Wednesday in a series of monthly economic statistics released by the Chinese government.