Seriously, only Israelis who think it's trendy to live in an ersatz New York, London, or Berlin would pay that kind of money. And only Israelis would think that Tel Aviv is "trendy" at all, or a "world-class city." But then again, they only waste their money because they're not lucky enough to get permission to move to America or the EU, like most Israelis want to, and live in real cities.

Why not change the buildings and make it all cheaper.Why does every building need to be luxury just make some of them non luxury then regular israelis can afford to live there. Restrict prices and who some of the apartments can be sold too. make the sale of the land according to the type of building being built. Make sure that if it is luxury it is at the standard as i believe builders are just putting in the extra word to make more money without the extra expense.

Are you bitter or something? A real city? Tel Aviv is a fantastic place to live-does you living in Stockholm suddenly make you an expert on what's a real city?Perhaps you had no friends and didn't go out. Whatever the reason-you are talking a load of rubbish.

Wonderful news this collapse of prices.Let the trend continue.Those sharks are loosing big.The people have spoken. They were pushed to far. Another two years and reality will return.

Like Stockholm is world class lol just a cold dark city. You are the dump

I've lived in the south, centre and north. In some places it is a bit of a dump and generally ridiculously over-priced. But it's not nearly as bad as Oded says, and is generally a nice place to live in. Good night life. Passable greenery. Decent public transport. So it's not as glitzy sounding as New York or London. If ever I thought of leaving Israel it would not be because of Tel Aviv, but rather a weakening education system and religious nuts in Knesset.

I've lived in London, Paris, amsterdam. But Tel-Aviv is the best!

that doesn't matter! The prices are unreasonable not because Tel Aviv is not Manhattan but because Israel is not the US. I would feel bad with myself If I lived in a resplendent tower while so many people around me were craving for decent meals and a cold place to spend the overly warm summers in Israel. Why buy an apartment for 20 million dollars? Just to get a view of what? Newcomers with academic degrees whom the country brought from the former republics of the soviet union to sweep the streets for free? I agree that the taller the tower, the better the view you get of exploited cheap labor called "Olim Hadashim". Maybe them it's not such a bad deal if you want to quench that sadistic desire.

But I have noticed the following: the streets here in Sweden aren't covered in dog poop, like in Tel Aviv.

No, it's not exactly aesthetically pleasing, and having lived at various times in New York City, Prague, and Paris, I can't help but feel that it's small and there's not much to do after a couple of weeks (which doesn't bother Israelis since they have no culture anyway), but TA has everything that any other relatively large city on earth has. It has less of it perhaps, but that's to be expected as it's a small place in global terms. A few museums, a few good restaurants, a theatre or two, a couple of nice bars staffed by obnoxious Israelis, an amazing beach--what more could you want?

A bubble usually happens when there is over-building and this is not yet the case. What happened here is that the builder's capital was diminished by a global financial melt-down. Tel Aviv, unlike Stockholm is an "upwardly moving" city with limited inventory of housing. The moth-balling of these projects will compound that - prices may not go down that much!

Oded, baby. A city is not just buildings and transportation - first of all it's people that live and work there. Perhaps your problem is with Israelis?

The problem with Tel Aviv is that it wasn't planned properly. The city should have had its major streets perpendicular to the sea so that the cool winds coming from the mediteranean would ease the hot, humid air in the city. Instead all of the major thoroughfares (ben yehuda, hayarkon, dizengoff, ibn gvirol) are parallel to the sea. It's also aestheticaly pleasing to see the sea when you're driving and not the decrepit houses from the 60s and 70s that badly need to be removed or renovated.

To your rude and ignorant comments about tel aviv, i just wanted to tell you that many people from all over the world dream of living in Tel Aviv, but dont have the permission to live here and that Israeli's love this country they dont live here becuase they dont have any other choice...thank you for expertise on israel though...im sure you know the ins and outs of the city super well.

Anna, over here in London they've told us even last year that the UK as a whole lacks housing and London as a specific case lacks quite a lot of housing. Yet the prices since august 2007 have dropped about 15% depending on the survey you prefer. The bubble is not only in quantity, it's in price as well. If people can no longer afford it for a variety of reasons (fear of price dropping after buying it, less job security, fired from job, no mortgages, fear of bad news around the world etc), then the price is no longer attractive at which point if enough people will not pay it, then it's become an inflated price. What is happening now is that many are facing less job security and fear of prices reducing at a time when worldwide mortgage companies are removing their best offers. That has led to a collapse in the US and UK of the demand for housing. People need homes, they are just willing to wait for lower prices... and slowly more and more sellers drop their price demands. Therefore if in todays market the old prices (higher prices) are not affordable, they were in a bubble of free money of the past.