60% + national housing price crash example, page-6

Irish unemployment rate was 4.5% in 2007, now over 14%. This is the primary factor behind the property bust, not to mention over that time property prices grew alot quicker in Ireland than here. People lose their jobs, they can't pay their mortgages. Just to put this in perspective, in the last 30 odd years Australia has never had an unemployment rate higher than 11% and it is around 5% now. The last time property prices were put under pressure in Australia, the unemployment rate rose rapidly from under 6% to close to 11% (late 80s, early 90s). Many Irish are actually moving to Australia for work in the mining industry. There is simply no resemblance in conditions that would trigger a housing crash here. As a resource rich country we have been able to weather the economic storm mainly due to strong Chinese growth.

There is almost always a strong correlation between housing price growth and unemployment rate.Rising population, strong resource sector, property is a solid safe investment from a long-term perspective.