Speaking of Bubbles - Ireland's property one is HUGE

[MrX]

I just thought that I would let some of the American posters on this forum know that they're not alone when it comes to property bubbles.

Ours is a little different to yours, the property developers are the ones who went most insane during the boom.

They have managed to build houses in places that nobody wants to live, and that there was simply never a market for at any stage, even during the boom.

The result is that 1 in 5 houses in ireland was built in the last 5 years and is empty.

I've linked a YouTube video clip from BBC World News below. Scary scary stuff!

 

[hydralique]

Location, location, location . . .

Things are much the same here in Southern California, albeit the percentage of empty homes isn't nearly so high. The media paints a dire picture of thousands of foreclosures here, but the majority of them are out in the less desirable parts of the desert where the job market isn't strong and it's a long drive to LA.

My best friend is currently looking for a house. He's lived in West LA for years and wants to remain close to his office in Santa Monica, but in a reasonable but not fancy neighborhood it still takes at least $600K for a decent 1500 sq. ft. house from the '40s, and much more in better area such as Cheviot or Culver City. He can't afford that so is looking in the better areas around Crenshaw, south of I-10. So far good deals have been going quickly there. He put in one full price offer ($365K) on a clean but not updated bank-owned '40s house in Crenshaw Manor but didn't get it, we are waiting to see what it finally went for. As in Ireland, it's location, location, location.