Phew

At exactly this time last year I was in Lorca in Spain looking at houses to buy. Watching BBC News coverage last night of the worst Earthquake in Spain for 50 years, I realised what a close call that had been. I could easily have been walking around the town at the time of day. Sometimes you realise how much chance there is in life.

In 2001, my eldest son had gone to study at University in the US, on an exchange. He'd been thinking of going to New York in September, and would have been going around the Twin Towers had he gone. Fortunately, he never made the trip.

The last time we'd been in Spain looking at buying a house was in October 2008. We'd just been looking at some houses, and I'd thought of going back the next day to haggle over prices with the builder. When we got back to the villa we were staying in the news was full of the fall out from the Credit Crunch, so we decided to just enjoy the rest of our holiday instead.

Last year, having looked around we decided that prices in Spain were still way too high. As the Euro crisis broke last year that was proved to be correct, and that crisis still hasn't by any means ended. Its no wonder there are still 1.5 million unsold houses in Spain. There again, it makes you wonder whether any price is low enough to compensate for living in an earthquake zone.