Nominal residential property prices, all dwellings, as a change over four quarters, from the BIS's selected series, which restate the MLIT residential property price index on a common base. Housing is the largest asset households own and the collateral behind most private credit, so a year-on-year fall in prices marks the point at which a slowdown reaches balance sheets. The series was added in September 2026 after an outside review.
Threshold source: worldstat.us construction: nominal house prices below a year earlier for two quarters in a row, the pattern of 2008 in the United States, the United Kingdom and the euro area and of China from 2022. How thresholds are chosen
Quarterly and one to two quarters behind. The BIS receives the Japanese index late: the latest quarter is usually three behind the other regions, so the series is often flagged stale between releases. Prices fell year on year through most of the 1990s and 2000s, so in Japan the rule describes a long slide rather than a turn.