Ok, do you want house prices to go up or down ?

lostinrates

andys15 wrote: »

I dont believe they struggle to buy suitable average houses, . I am in a professional job earning £82000, and I live in the same street as my cleaner, but she has a 4 bedroomed, where we have 3 bedroooms. Her husband works in a factory earning £25000. Is this right, I dont care it is what it is. They were lucky and were in a position to buy when the house was £90000, we bought when it was £250000. Saying that though, I am really starting to overpay my mortgage, as bigger and better houses are falling into our price range. I am planning that my house in 3 years we will have lost around £50000, we will have a mortgage then of around £180000, maybe close to NE, but bigger houses will have dropped more.

well, we have been struggling! We have a large deposit, lots more than your cleaner paid for her house at all, and we could buy A PROPERTY but not necessarily a suitable one, traditionally or practically, in reasonable commutable distance. I similary don't mind where other people live....like your cleaner, good for her- I don't see why that would be wrong, but I do care where I live. Luckily for us we don't really care about what is traditionally suitable but rather what is fit for OUR purposes and have shared ambitions and a goo plan b and c. so, we could have bought, insuitably and IMO impruently, but have not.

angrypirate

I would like them to go down

Realy wrote: »

I don't think balloning HPI is seen as good, neither is a bust. But it happened.

Disagree with you on that - government publicised it as fantastic - free money from your home

Realy wrote: »

A lot of people will buy at the bottom on here and HPI will start again.
Will they sell at their house at purchase price + CPI to a FTB when they want to move if that works out 30% below market value? I doubt it.
Not having a go at any one but A lot of people need house prices to drop to be able to buy (and they will)
But in 10 years time it will all happen again and the people moaning about falling house prices and NE will be some of you.;)

Im sure you'll join us too!:beer:

lostinrates

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

The problem is house prices in your area.
If you were in a different area, you would very possibly find that it is possible.

How big do you think the area should be? I'm currently receiving details from propertis in 8 counties (having rduced search area:o ).

Thing is, DH earns his salary. Last week he didn't even go to his rented room three nights, two nights he worked/napped through, the third he was so tired he fell asleep for almost four hours at his desk. How, relaistically, working like that could a person then commute for the long commutes that have become quite normal to city workers? Let alone take part in family life.

Its all very well for us, and I agree with much said here, to say people must 'cut their cloth' but in reality there are a lot of people who are working like stink, for both good wages and poor, an are tied to work locations, family problems etc that the way they live with these constriants suggest to be there are flaws in the current system, serious flaws!

Realy

I would like them to go down

angrypirate wrote: »

Disagree with you on that - government publicised it as fantastic - free money from your home

Im sure you'll join us too!:beer:

Sold in July08 at 07 price -£5K,
Purchased in August 08 at -27% April 08 price.;)

I have now done all the activity I am going to do over the next 10 years.:beer:

andys15

I would like them to go down

lostinrates wrote: »

well, we have been struggling! We have a large deposit, lots more than your cleaner paid for her house at all, and we could buy A PROPERTY but not necessarily a suitable one, traditionally or practically, in reasonable commutable distance. I similary don't mind where other people live....like your cleaner, good for her- I don't see why that would be wrong, but I do care where I live. Luckily for us we don't really care about what is traditionally suitable but rather what is fit for OUR purposes and have shared ambitions and a goo plan b and c. so, we could have bought, insuitably and IMO impruently, but have not.

Yes but your argument was that you could not get an average home and quite cleary you can. You might not be able to buy a home that traditionly someone in your DH/NDG profession could get a few years ago. Times have changed though. My remark about my cleaner illustrates that. I noticed the change a few years ago when I was in the Navy. In the past there was a clear class divide between officers and junior rates, then all of a sudden some junior rates were living in better houses than there officers, because they got a house back in 93 or whenever. Some were driving better cars, had much more disposable income.

lostinrates

Realy wrote: »

But there you go that is what happens the expanding out process, I think that shows signs of over population.
Whether you like it or not you will cause HPI for someone else by your actions and it is unavoiadable (I am not having a go as it is the times we live in) they then go and do the same as you and so on and so on.
As you say the trick is to buy at the bottom, but most will do that and take advantage of HPI in the future.

Again, I don't disagree, but I do think that with prices more relevant to th average earning in the relvant areas and a different world of work culture this would not have been necessary. In actual fact, by then, as a family we will have added back to the property market, even with our having (theorectically) two properties. For a start property in london, if it happened, would probably be a subdivision of a subdivision.

lostinrates

andys15 wrote: »

Yes but your argument was that you could not get an average home and quite cleary you can. You might not be able to buy a home that traditionly someone in your DH/NDG profession could get a few years ago. Times have changed though. My remark about my cleaner illustrates that. I noticed the change a few years ago when I was in the Navy. In the past there was a clear class divide between officers and junior rates, then all of a sudden some junior rates were living in better houses than there officers, because they got a house back in 93 or whenever. Some were driving better cars, had much more disposable income.

No, no, no. we could not get an average property in a realistic commutable location for DH, we can't. It was this that first prompted us to look at alternatives, which in fact, may well suit us better- but thats because we are both lucky and unusual. I also think we have done pretty darn well accumulating funds, better than average for our generation, first year of Uni fees etc etc, so on that front I think we are above average but still struggling! Again, I agree, times have changed. But its not just for higher paid workers. That was kind of my point, if it is hard for us, how hard must it be for other comparitive situations.

ETA: how id the HPI help juniors? Had they BTL, MEWed? Did they sell the houses they had bought? are you sure none of it was own to increased debt an debt culture?

Realy

I would like them to go down

lostinrates wrote: »

Its all very well for us, and I agree with much said here, to say people must 'cut their cloth' but in reality there are a lot of people who are working like stink, for both good wages and poor, an are tied to work locations, family problems etc that the way they live with these constriants suggest to be there are flaws in the current system, serious flaws!

I agree, and that is why renting should always be cheaper than buying as it is the poorer who need cheaper property (rental) the most.

I don't know a solution but accept the boom and bust cycle and I sure most of you agree your time will come.
But I think more than any other time people will have to accept in a couple of years time if they still can't afford a house in the area they want they will have to look at moving area or be happy with renting.
I still think population is a problem (personal view and not imagration, population as a whole) I know all the figures out their but where are the figures of 20+ year olds still living with parents, there as got to be over 2M+ of them.:eek:

before_hollywood

I would like them to go down

20% down would do me nicely, i am one of the literally millions of 20 somethings living with parents cos there is no other option for us. me and my mum were having this exact discussion last night, i said house prices are too high and no-one is buying anything cos those not in a chain cant afford the inflated prices and those in a chain find it hard to sell, then again i also believe that when you buy a house you buy it to live in and not to retire off

chewmylegoff

angrypirate wrote: »

Could it be that Brown raided the pensions pot and screwed everyone over? People lost hundreds of thousands, decided that pensions were no longer the way forward to future funds and looked towards tangible assessts?

brown abolished the 10% dividend tax credit for pensions. this didn't result in people losing money overnight, they didn't see their pension pot reduced by hundreds of thousands of pounds overnight. it did hit future growth through reinvestment of dividends, and caused problems as pension companies rely on the cash from dividend streams to pay pensioners.

however, at the same time you were still looking at being taxed at 24% (40% tax with with maximum taper of 40% as BTLs did not qualify for business asset status) on any gain on BTL investments, plus taxed on any profit at 40%. you couldn't put BTL properties in a SIPP so you couldn't protect the capital gains.

the real reason people piled into BTLs is that they saw other people making money out of them and jumped on to the bandwagon. they didn't go "oh my, my dividend tax credit has gone, the only alternative is to buy a load of highly leveraged city centre flats". people saw the capital appreciation and therefore decided that the BTL would be their pension.

this would have happened with or without the abolition of the dividend tax credit.