Housing prices are rising rapidly in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, South Africa and Sweden.

Housing prices are flat—or falling—in Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the U.S.

Welcome to the two-speed global economy.

When most observers talk about a "two-speed economy," they are contrasting slow-growing mature or advanced economies (the U.S., Europe, Japan, etc.) with fast-growing developing or emerging-market economies (China, India, Brazil, etc.). Philip Suttle of the Institute of International Finance, a bankers' association, calls it "a two-and-six world." In mature economies, growth and inflation are at around 2%; in emerging markets both are around 6%. Whenever anything nudges them off that course, he says, something else nudges them back.

But there's another way to divide the world: Some economies had a big banking crisis. Some didn't. And the ones that didn't are the ones where housing prices are shooting up. Slow growth in mature economies is leading them to keep interest rates low and credit conditions easy. Because they (so far) dominate world financial markets, that means global credit is easy, too easy for emerging markets where inflation—in wages, prices and asset prices—is the worry.