Ireland: Housing Boom

For my Spring Break this year, I left the US to visit Ireland for 10 days. It was a brilliant trip, and a lovely country. While I was overseas I noticed many cultural and economic differences and figured I could share some of them with you all. (Maybe a series of posts on Ireland...)

Most people are familiar with the Irish potato famine and the hardships the country and people have faced. However, what many do not know is that the economy of Ireland today is in a deep recession, like the US. Ireland fell victim to a housing boom. Contractors constructed a multitude of houses. On my trip I saw clusters of modern houses, all similar in style and size. The majority of the houses/building however were empty. Ireland spent a huge amount of money on this housing project leaving the banks in debt. For more detailed information on Irish finance news please visit http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1015142.shtml .

The debt was substantial leaving the Irish government to look for advise from other countries. The US prompted the Irish to bail out the banks, which has now left Ireland in a deep recession.
In my opinion, the US led Ireland astray.

Above is a chart where the increase in buildings constructed corresponds with a net migration (out of the country) likely due to the bad economic times Ireland is under- likely due to the housing boom and bank bail-out.