Fixer-upper of an Irish house drops by $300,000 in two years

Posted on Monday, January 11, 2010 at 02:56 PM

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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?

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sissybiff | Jan 13, 2010, 07:50 PM EST

The "geniuses " were not that. The geniuses are those who did not buy at the inflated prices

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JoanHilles | Jan 13, 2010, 09:10 AM EST

I think it's a bit like the housing market in the US---houses are now being sold for what they are actually worth!

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IrishAndProud | Jan 13, 2010, 12:08 AM EST

Well, Kelly...it only confirms once again the definition of an 'expert': someone who's always surprised at everything. We've plenty of them over here, on this side of the pond...particularly in economics and politics.

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kickstar | Jan 12, 2010, 03:34 AM EST

And it plenty of bottom in it yet...........Believe me.

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