Housing market starts to heat up

The collapse in house prices after 2008 imposed massive pain on many people; it did serious damage to the stability and resilience of the banking system; and it imposed considerable pain on the overall economy.

Between the peak of the national residential market in September 2007 and the bottom in March 2013, national average residential property prices declined by 50.9%; outside of Dublin they declined by 48.7% and in Dublin between the peak of the market in February 2007 and the bottom of the market in August 2012, average prices declined by a massive 57.4%.

These are phenomenal price declines by any historical or international standards. The downward adjustment has been very painful on many fronts and the legacy will take a long time to work through.