For decades, China has been one of the world's fastest growing economies.

A big part of that was its thriving property market.

The home ownership rate is quite high in China.

It's much higher than in the US.

Our colleague Rebecca Feng is based in Hong Kong.

More than 90% of households own their homes compared with about 65% in the US.

A big reason is throughout most of the 2000s and 2010s,

property prices have been climbing with little sign of stung down.

So people are more willing to park their money in real estate.

Most economists and analysts would agree that our real estate and related industries,

related industries, meaning like furniture, cement, whatever,

they kind of account for roughly one-fourth of China's GDP.

That's huge. That is huge.

But the property sector has faced problem after problem over the last couple of years.

And now, China's housing market is sinking deeper and deeper into a slump,

threatening the health of the number two economy in the world.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Wednesday, August 30th.

Coming up on the show, the housing market crisis that's rocking China's economy.

The real estate industry in China exploded in the 2010s.

In 2009, sales of residential homes totaled around $528 billion.

A decade later, that figure had soared to over $2 trillion.

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