patientlywaiting, the Irish property bubble was beyond belief. In the article, the authors point out that an ordinary single family residence in an ordinary area of Dublin cost could as much as a home in Beverly Hills. And the weather s**ks. I can vouch for both.

My brother sold his nice, but ordinary, 175-year-old house in Dublin for $2 million many years before the peak. My niece, visiting in 2001, thought that the SFRs in Crystal Cove (Orange County) were unbelievably cheap. She was just out of college and not planning to leave Ireland, but was tempted to buy one because it looked so cheap compared to houses in Dublin.

It is this extreme disconnect between price and value in Ireland (and the UK) that made me think that the situation here in So Cal could not only continue, but get worse, before it got better. I am still not quite sure why the bubble here popped when it did. China and others lending us the money are still anxious for a continuation of the old days, and God knows the homeowners and pols and bankers are too.

50% off a ridiculous peak is still very high (for what you get). My Irish and English relatives are salivating at the prices they see here. It’s all I can do to get them to wait a while longer before picking up a few investment properties.