A single house in Drogheda in County Louth sums up the dizzying boom-to-bust of the Irish property market.

This house, at 39 Hand Street, has been on the market for several years.

It's an older style semi-detached terrace house (with the highly-sought-after Irish thing of a "side entrance.")

The house, which has three bedrooms and one bathroom, needs a lot of modernization.

But still, at the height of the boom it was offered for €350,000 ($508,000). The crazy economics of the time meant that this same fixer-upper house in a major town outside Dublin was being brought to market for the same price as a single-family home in Westchester in New York.

I was so shocked by the selling price that I created a database of houses for sale in Drogheda and every month I check back in to see what they're selling at.

As of January 2010, this house is on the market for €149,000 ($216,000).

Where oh where are all those geniuses who kept saying there was nothing wrong with the fundamental economics of the Irish housing market?