Just when you thought there was nothing about the Irish property market that could possibly make you raise an eyebrow, along come the kind folks of the University of Ulster with their quarterly house price index to tell you that wartorn backwater Northern Ireland is currently experiencing the kind of precipitous increases last seen when people in Dublin first started talking about tigers.
That's Ulster, you know, the economically bereft, paramilitary plagued zone of bitter religious strife. Where the majority of the GDP is produced by the government paying for state jobs.
Yup, the six counties have apparently managed to move beyond the stereotype by becoming a more expensive place than Wales, Scotland or even Northern England in which to buy a house.
Quoth the good professors, "The average house price now stands at £180,128 up by 32.1% on a year before and up by 11.9% over a quarter."
Rockefeller knew he was in the end of the bull market when his shoeshine boy was offering stock tips.
Surely a bubble market in Belfast is a sure sign that the Irish property bubble is set to pop at last?
