House prices were on the cusp of one of the biggest falls in decades, hit by what was shaping up to be a near-lethal combination of mass unemployment and zero immigration.
After decades of a seemingly unstoppable real estate bubble, the prospect of a sustained fall in housing prices brought a glimmer of hope to those under 35 that home ownership may become a possibility if they could hold on to a job.
Even relatively conservative analysts were forecasting house price declines of 20 per cent and back in May our biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, pencilled in the prospect of a 32 per cent collapse.