The French housing market showed some recovery in 2013 amid furthermoderate price falls in the Paris area, Île de France and the rest of the country,at -1.5%, -1.6% and -1.4% respectively, and as interest rates stabilised athistorically low levels. The volume of transactions for existing homes, the mainmarket segment, grew again (+2.1%) and housing loan production reboundedsharply (+56%). However, the latter trend reflects an unprecedented volume ofloan transfers, 1 which accounted for 18.1% of production in 2013. Against thisbackdrop, total outstanding loans showed a relatively small increase comparedto the long-term trend (+3.9%).