The euro zone housing market has already recovered from its recent slump and prices are likely to rise further, challenging affordability in a potentially unhealthy development, the European Central Bank said in an Economic Bulletin article. House prices slumped from 2022 as surging inflation, high energy costs and rising interest rates all constrained a market that had been on an exceptional run in the preceding several years. But this downturn was shallow, with the peak-to-trough part of the cycle showing a cumulative decline of 3% over one and a half years, a smaller drop than during the global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, when prices fell almost 5%, the ECB said on Monday.