How much money do you need to be happy?

ninky_2

mitchaa wrote: »

i am a million miles away from NE
l

what do you put this down to?

personal skill, the economy, luck or freak of nature?

mitchaa

ninky wrote: »

what do you put this down to?

personal skill, the economy, luck or freak of nature?

25% overpayments for the last 18mths, a small 3% deposit, and the fact that when i look at houses up for sale and selling in my area that they are still selling above what i paid for mine 2yrs ago, along with the relevant house price indexes supporting.

The fact the area with a strong industry never seen house prices out of control in the 1st place certainly helps with how much they will subsequently fall by.

Luck i suppose that i live in such an area, and not N.Ireland for example.

Freak of nature? Only London and Aberdeen have strong profitable industries i suppose.

Waaaaaaaaay off topic so i will post no more, back on topic now.

moggylover

mitchaa wrote: »

Think about what you are saying here, as you are arguing for the sake of arguing

Scotland is fairing well, primarily due to the fact that Scotland never seen the same HPI boom that England did. If Scotland has always been more affordable than England, guess what, it has less to fall, it really is that simple. It was exactly the same 15yrs ago with the last crash.

The key is affordability. The average house price in Scotland is at around £125k, the average house price in England around £175k

The figures shown in my signature strip, i didn't actually just make them up you know, there is evidence to back up my claim:rolleyes:

Aberdeen is falling, where did i say that it was not, but it is clear to see that with many areas back to 2004/2005 levels, Aberdeen is still stuck half way through 2007 levels.

2007 compared to 2004/5 tells me that the 2007 is fairing better. It's not hard to grasp;)



On the way down from my 2008 figures I had 20% equity, then 15%, now 10%, of course its going down but where the majority are in negative equity, Aberdeenshire is still showing positive. If i was in it for the money i would have sold 9 mths ago and banked 20% equity, but im not a greedy man, and i really couldn't give 2 monkeys about chasing every penny that i may or may not have got. Far more to life than that, i.e a happy family home.

Propertybee and zoopla:rotfl: I use official ROS (LR) Halifax and Nationwide data, and a little common sense.This is then backed up with your likes of zoopla, but in the ASPC sense. Let me know when zoopla and propertybee publish official figures that the government take note of, there are a million and 1 indexes out there all showing different things, but when we talk of the 07 crash 20yrs from now, do you think people will be quoting zoopla/propertybee figures:rolleyes:

Jealousy, that some areas are okay and some are plunging, some people really need to get a grip.

Aberdeen just like London has very lucrative industries, Aberdeen just like London has higher than normal salaries, but unlike London, Aberdeen has always been affordable housing wise. 2+2 = 4, not 5.

Over and out, talking to brick walls here obviously.

Q1 07 and Q1 09 in my signature strip will soon be updated, it will no doubt show a fall, but will Q1 09 be less than Q1 07....We'll see

I think the problem is that you are taking a little joke on my part as an attack when it is not meant to be really - although I think if we had really taken apart even your official figures when you posted your siggy we could well have come to a different conclusion to yourself.

I also use Nationwide and Halifax figures, but I use a great deal of common sense in addition: especially in view of the fact that they showed a rise in prices in this area last month that was not in line with what I knew to be true on the ground;) . So, I checked Land Registry figures (as do Zoopla and others) and what I found was that for the first month in several, there were actually a few of the very much more expensive homes in this area that had sold - and that this had pushed up the apparent average, not that the prices HAD actually risen. Indeed, when I then checked the selling prices of these houses against the asking prices they had been listed at (and I have been watching the market for several years in my quest for the particular type of property I want and have print outs going back quite some time (sad, OCD [EMAIL="barstew@rd"]barstew@rd[/EMAIL] or what?:rolleyes: ) then they had all, without fail, actually achieved less than they had been on at and some at substantially less. I also looked at what I had estimated some of those houses were really worth in the market current when they went on (some as far back as 2005 and 2006) as the asking prices even then were resulting in "sitting" properties rather than "selling" ones - and even on those values prices were down.

There is no attack intended, I last sold and moved here from Slough in the last recession in 1989, and as Slough, for all her numerous faults, is an area with a lot of industry and work it did not get hit as badly as some far more salubrious and sought after areas did then. Thus I am well aware that there are areas that will not be as badly hit this time.

I have also had a period of negative equity upon purchase of this house but it did not bother me in the slightest as I did not want to sell, and was in the process of renovating it to be a long-term home.

However, you are SO adamant about your siggy figures and the indestructibility of your particular industry that I'm afraid that you tempted me into teasing you about it:o, which I think you will find is a common reaction to someone protesting a little too much:D .

I agree though, that it doesn't matter in your bigger picture - just as it did not in mine. However, I do think it would be difficult to agree that you have actually MADE money during HPC, as this would involve the actual house price going up enough to cover not only your initial purchase price, but also your mortgage payments which I do not think it will have done: especially since the land registry figures do appear to show quite substantial price drops on the larger properties in your area compared to 2007.

Personally, I suspect that I shall be hard pushed to show any major profit on my house when I sell despite having owned it since late 1990! It was purchased almost derelict, it was necessary to demolish all but the majority of the old stone walls in order to begin the renovation and the re-build/renovation cost was in the region of £70K on top of the £40K it cost me to buy. Add to that the mortgage payments over 19 years, plus the money spent on making a garden from a large mud patch (not using landscapers though: it was/is a proper garden:D ) and maintenance and taking into account price drops since 2007 when it was valued at £225 - then I should be surprised if it shows any major profit in real terms, but it has to be considered that it has provided a warm, comfortable and characterful home during that time so I (like you) am not bothered by the money aspect.

Conrad

Mitchaa, plenty of us live in nice properous areas, and have no hesitation acknowledging 20% falls in our patch. A client only today told me how city centre properties in Cambridge have fallen 20%+, despite all the science parks and so on.

tomterm8

mitchaa wrote: »

Nice try, but where would you suggest i live had i not have a mortgaged property?

Repayment mortgage payments for me (£1200) are around the same as what i would be paying for a similar rental property,

That's nice, but we are at ultra-record breakling interest rate lows. You need to figure in the fact that interest rates are almost certainly going to rise, and rise substantially.

mitchaa

tomterm8 wrote: »

That's nice, but we are at ultra-record breakling interest rate lows. You need to figure in the fact that interest rates are almost certainly going to rise, and rise substantially.

Mr sensible with a 5yr fix already;)