Property prices in a small city in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province nosedived in 2021 to the point they are the lowest in the country, and the local government is China’s first to undergo fiscal consolidation. Hegang, a city with a population of less than 900,000, is regarded as a Tier 5 city in China. As early as 2019, an older apartment with a floor area of 40 square meters (about 431 square feet) sold for $4,700. In China’s Tier 1 cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen—home prices could be dozens of times higher than those in Hegang. Thus, Hegang housing prices are called “cabbage prices.” On Dec. 23, 2021, the city’s human resources office issued a notice cancelling a public recruitment plan for government positions due to “significant changes in financial situation” and the “fiscal consolidation” of the local government. City on the Brink of Bankruptcy The city’s budgetary review of …