Hi Neustria,
In Germany there is not the same stock market culture you have in Anglo Saxon cultures, so I don't think that will drive price changes. A significant portion of savings are held on bank deposit accounts. What may affect prices is the fear of losing employment which appears to be rising at the moment. There has been a spate of bad news in the papers recently altough that's not related to the sub prime crisis - ***** are closing a factory in Bochum with the loss of 2000+ jobs (it's moving to low cost Romania). Woolworth have also announced 900 job losses and Deutsche Telekom have announced more restructuring. 2008 was supposed to be a year with over 2% GDP growth however the government has been revising that down recently. On a plus note
- Taxes will be reduced slightly from Jan
- in 2008 average Salaries are expected to be above inflation for the first time since about 1998 i.e. people will feel they have more money in their pocket.

Finally in discussions with German colleagues and friends who are thinking of buying houses, we're all watching interest rates which already have started to drop.

So I am waiting until May/June before I buy, I hope I can make a more enlightened decision then.

regards,
Martin