You give me fever. But not property fever.

Urgh, and indeed bleaurgh. I am poorly. I was poorlyish yesterday but chose to ignore it. I know that sounds daft, but sometimes if you ignore poorly it gets into a huff and goes away.
Not so this poorly. I woke up at 3:30 this morning to find I had sweated through my panda bear jammies and my pillow, leaving me no recourse but to get up, change into a t-shirt, flip my pillow over and resume my dreamy feverish state if unconsciousness.
Fortunately we have spanish drugs here and one of them is called Frenadol, and over the counter sachet of powder that has the capacity to A) knock even the sturdiest of folk unconscious, and B) the ability to halt sickness before it get a chance to run rampant. If anyone is traveling abroad look for this product. FRENADOL. Awesome stuff all together, don't take it before driving.
I won't say I'm well, but I'm not dying, and this leads me directly to the property market.
According to the Indo this velly Gingerday, roughly 25 grand has been lopped off the average house price. This is rather a lot when you consider the banks over the last few years have been handing out pretty much 100% mortgages to a lot of folk. Folk who can scarce afford to see their equity go negative.
Apartments seem to be taking a pounding. In Balinteer as much as €50,000 has been knocked off the asking price of some apartments, a substantial amount of money and one which must be very aggravating for folk who have just bought there.
Around here house prices have been in steady decline too. Remax in Rathfarnham are actually having a sale, something I've NEVER seen an estate agent do. But the truth is properties are not moving. There are at least four houses in my surrounding area which have been on the market for over an year now and no budge. A friend of mine from Waterford told me that the agency he works for hasn't sold a mortgage since last November. Another friend of mine who works in finance says it's set to much much worse over the next 12 months.
'But what about the soft landing?" I asked.
'Harrumph, what about it?' He replied.
Quite.
Prices were massively over inflated in most areas anyway, so this is a correction. But that's scant comfort to those who bought at the top end of the market. I have friends who are absolutely stretched to the max as is, their wealth is tied up in their homes. They're tied in. Even if they wanted to sell to release funds now there is no guarantee of a sale.
Nervous times.
Without banging the doom and gloom drums, I think we are in for a bumpy ride for the next year or two, I genuinely do. If you're thinking of buying now I would advise waiting. At least until the end of the year. When corrections occur they can be painful and sharp.