If My Dream was to Live in a Irish Country Cottage...

...I would be watching the housing market like a hawk right now! Property prices are tumbling and bargains are to be found throughout Southern Ireland. For many folks, the idea of living in the beauty of the rolling Irish hills has been simply a dream, with falling house prices, that dream may soon be more attainable.

As we rode through Southern Ireland, we were amazed by the number of new houses, the number of houses in a 'paused' state of construction and the number of old (cottage-y) houses standing empty (just begging to be restored). We kept asking ourselves, 'Where did all the new houses come from, why are these old houses standing empty, and what has happened here?' Like many other countries around the world, Ireland has been hit by the recent economic crisis and their boom preceeding the crisis was in housing, and they built like the market was booming!

The result? The market tanked and now many of those properties are sitting empty. EU immigration is down, unemployment is up and housing prices are falling. UCD economist Morgan Kelly predicts that housing prices could fall as much as 80% from the peak in 2007. There are bargains to be had.

However, because of all of the above, you'll probably need to bring your own job. And that doesn't mean bringing your own job by buying a property and opening a B&B, there are tons of those already so I personally wouldn't put my income eggs in that particular basket. To take advantage of these bargains, bring your own job means generating an income which comes from an external to Ireland source. This is doable for those whose income is derived from rental, investment or Internet income, or for those who have the city job during the week and spend their weekends in the country.

And I wouldn't count on property values going up in a big way for a while, this is for someone whose dream has been to live in Ireland and until now that dream has been unaffordable - not for someone who is expecting to make big property gains.

But if you do dream of that little Irish cottage by the sea, friends and neighbors with that lilting accent and those rolling green hills, watch the prices - you may just find what you're looking for, at a price you can afford.