Prices Soar for Paris Apartments

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Prices for Paris apartments hit record levels this month, after a 7.8 percent jump in the last year.

According to the Notary's Association of Paris, a 50-square-meter apartment now costs about €334,000 (about $434,000), Property Wire reports. That's about €6,680 a square meter, which tops the previous record of €6,620 set in the last quarter of 2008.

The most expensive neighborhood is St Germain des Pres, where apartments are selling for €12,400 per square meter, according to Property Wire. Prices in the second district rose 19.3 percent last year.

As always in Paris, demand far outstrips the supply of quality apartments, trumping any global economic crisis.

"I don't think we are looking at the same situation we had at the end of the 1980s when there were plenty of properties for sale," association president Christian Lefebre. "This is the housing market catching up after a drop in prices in 2008 and 2009." He expects prices to continue to rise through the end of the year, with the supply of apartments low.

Across France, prices are up about 6 percent this year, according to data from the National Statistics Institute.

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