Great article by Karl Deeter on housing bubbles, shortages etc

Brendan Burgess said:

Bubble trouble: Dublin’s 300-year-old problem

A mortgage broker has been analysing the history of Dublin property prices and has made some interesting discoveries

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Is this link all there is? This is not a scholarly article. It contains one fact - "Even in the 1700s large price swings were recorded. So boom and bust Irish-style is a 300-year-old habit." The rest is just opinion.

How is that fair, when someone living on the street they want to buy on is years in arrears and is allowed to stay put?

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Sums up the Irish market for me. A near pathological fear of repossessions even for people who obviously can't afford the repayments. There's your problem right there. Solution: repossessions, but that's not happening, although I believe the Troika are trying to fix the block.

bugler said:

But...but....but, what about all the people who have no money but deserve to buy a house?

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Is this a serious question or sarcasm?

How does anyone "deserve" to buy a house?

Brendan

dub_nerd said:

The number of repossessions and voluntary surrenders has increased but is still at a comparative trickle. I suspect the banks are still desperately trying to avoid crystallising losses.

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It does seem like that doesn't it.