The picture emerging from public opinion polls is clear-cut: Israelis simply do not trust the promises made by politicians that home prices are going to fall anytime soon.

Thus, for instance, in January 2014, Israel’s business daily Calcalist published a survey according to which 89% of Israelis did not expect home prices to fall. Another survey, conducted in June 2015 by the daily Maariv, indicates that 73% of Israelis do not believe that home prices will fall in the next two years. The Israeli business daily Globes reported in October the findings of a similar survey according to which 80% of Israelis think that home prices will continue to rise in the next year.

On this issue, I find myself in agreement with most Israelis. I do not believe that it will be any easier for me to buy an apartment in the near future.

The bleak expectations consistently demonstrated by the public with regard to home prices stand in blatant contrast to the number of initiatives and pledges to lower home prices — be they promises made by the last three or four governments, or promises made by organizations that emerged after the 2011 social justice protests, declaring that they have the key to resolve the problem. Indeed, it seems that not a week has gone by in recent years without some idea or another being raised or a promise made to check the galloping prices. One of the most prominent programs is that proposed by the Treasury in June, soon after the appointment of Kulanu Party Chairman Moshe Kahlon as minister of finance in May — hailed by the media as "the Kahlon program for cutting down home prices." Among other things, the program calls for the expansion of the government-subsidized “buyer’s price” project (whereby entrepreneurs compete for the lowest price per apartment under the specifications set by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, while buyers receive government grants and entrepreneurs enjoy subsidized land prices); the promotion of housing construction projects on public lands; taxation measures designed to dampen investments in real estate favoring first-apartment buyers; and the like.