to answer your question on what is realistic value.
some points. house price has trippled or more in 8 years
Inflation on wages and material costs have not.
There for your profit margin on a house is massive compared to what it once was not that long ago.
Plenty of room for it to come down, realisticly housing should be up 60% at best, not 200%
IF you think something has changed to make the cost of a house increase by 200% i would love to hear what and how.
Remember two things Peoples wages are fixed Interest rates are still low and can climb
the more rates climb the less people can borrow and the less money people can physically start paying for housing. so the ones forced to sell in future will be to people who cant afford to pay what they did in cheaper interest rates.
It's all about credit, which is why the RBA is upping rates to stop spending to bring inflation back down. Houses being the most expensive item are what is effected the most when it starts to kick in which will be another year away.
This cycle thats lasted 8 or 9 years now isnt going to last the rest of your life time, or the rest of your mortgage
as for credit crunch we are only 1 year into subprime. its a 4 year event!
Oil is a totally different issue, we have only been pumping 85 million bbl a day for some years now, and that number will drop as the current well's drop in presure.. demand for oil keeps growing. so your comparing apple and oranges
