From: "biggirlsblouse" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: house prices - always and forever upward?
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:29:42 GMT

Before I set about seriously considering whether to buy a second home, the 
cautious man in me thought that although the history of at least the last 50 
years has shown overall an enormous increase in prices, within that period 
there have been short(ish) periods where house priices have dropped 
(negative equity in the early 90's just being the worst example). I can 
think of a smaller spike in the mid 70's too.
However my question is this...are there ANY circumstances under which house 
prices will fall and stay low (not counting very local circumstances where 
perhaps the collapse of a local economy like the mining industry in the 80's 
and 90's, and ignoring the effects of perhaps, God forbid, a nuclear 
accident).
I mean relatively speaking what happened to house prices during the period 
of the plague for example?
The kind of thing I am thinking about (brainstorming here of course without 
being judgemental) is;
* bird flue epidemic where 25% of the populus are decimated.
* overbuilding on the back of the promise of profits which in turn causes 
over supply
* world war

Any more situations which might cause a collapse of regional house 
prices?.... or is it just not feasible these days with fiscal management?