But Oz. is very much part of the global village and Oz. is not different. The below article talks of very high valuations for equities, it's the same for houses. If an investor can't get a 6/8% return on his investment property, he/she has paid too much for it.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/normal-markets-stock-share-US-QE-Greece-EFSF-gover-pd20111014-MLRCX?OpenDocument&src=kgb Anyway, the 25 years from 1982 to 2007 saw a vast expansion of credit, including a blow-off in the final five years that saw credit expand at triple the normal rate, thanks largely to the innovation of 'sub-prime loans' packaged into fraudulent instruments with the connivance of ratings agencies and sold to investors rather than retained on bank balance sheets.
Looking back, it’s plain that this period was not 'normal'. Among other things, credit expansion resulted in very high valuations for equities, so that when analysts point to long-term average price earnings ratios of 15 or so, they’re referring to an abnormal period. During the 1970s for example, the average PE was below 10.
