Real estate weakens in China's resource-depleted cities

While housing prices in China's megacities like Beijing and Shanghai remain sky-high, a little-known border city in the nation's northeast has developed a reputation overnight on social media for its extraordinarily cheap apartments. A 50-square-meter flat costs an estimated 20,000 yuan, less than 3,000 U.S. dollars. Average home prices in the city's real estate market suggests that extremely cheap homes seem to be exceptional cases. Most houses for sale cost over 2,000 yuan per square meter, which is about 300 U.S. dollars -- much more than the anecdotal low price. But the average housing price here in Hegang is still rather low. Namely, it's quite common to find a 50-square-meter apartment worth about 15,000 U.S. dollars in Hegang, which may not be enough to buy even one square meter in downtown Beijing. Locals have also seen a gradual cooling of Hegang's housing market.