You don’t need a fancy economic degree to figure out the reasons for the sea of empty homes. “Modest economic forecast and negative population growth estimates” are blamed for the surplus. In other words, the flow of overseas buyers has dried up for all those new, ground-breaking, one-of-a-kind developments.

If anything, the 31,000 number sounds light, considering the drop in demand. And that means, if Dubai is a true open market, prices should continue to fall, as well.

The latest report from Colliers International (available here) found prices dropped 48 percent from the second quarter of 2008.