UK Property to HALVE Between Now and July 29, 2010

Graham_Devon

Cleaver wrote: »

There is no point to this post whatsoever. But Sex on the City is on the Cleaver television, and this is more interesting.

I think I'll post some purple dots when Embarrasing Bodies is being forced into the living room!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

They haven't always sat at the limit of affordability.

Check out 1996 and other bottoms of the market.

So housing is only "affordable" when recessions, mass unemployment, and general misery prevail.

But times of prosperity, wealth and high levels of employment only happen when prices are rising or very high.

Great. Thanks for pointing that out.:D

Bring on the unnafordable houses.:rotfl:

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

So housing is only "affordable" when recessions, mass unemployment, and general misery prevail.

But times of prosperity, wealth and high levels of employment only happen when prices are rising or very high.

Great. Thanks for pointing that out.:D

Bring on the unnafordable houses.:rotfl:

Erm ok.

The recession of the 90's finished in 1991.

There was growth averaging roughly 3% for the following five years, while houses became more and more affordable and finally bottomed out in 1996.

Sorry, but fail.

Cleaver

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

So housing is only "affordable" when recessions, mass unemployment, and general misery prevail.

But times of prosperity, wealth and high levels of employment only happen when prices are rising or very high.

Great. Thanks for pointing that out.:D

Bring on the unnafordable houses.:rotfl:

But unnafordable houses brings misery to many. As a whole, it's healthy for things to rise slowly. In every walk of life. Your job / career, a relationship, your hobby and, yes, house prices. Slow and steady. Walk before you can run.

Because when house prices go up really quick it causes problems. It means that that, a) people can't afford a house and b) people who did manage to buy a house then see a crash, and their home lose value very quickly. What's the point?

Surely there is a middle ground, where houses rise roughly in line with the rest of the economy, which is hopefully rising in a steady, sustainable, controlled way.

julieq

As we're always being reminded Graham, affordability in the 1990 correction was affected by high interest rates and inflation stoked unemployment. This time affordability has been affected by the withdrawal of credit.

If you're telling me that I won't stretch for that dream Georgian Rectory when I can get a mortgage for the full asking price, I have a deposit, and my joint household income can stretch to it on available multiples, then I'm sorry, but you're not living on planet real life.

Obviously there are other obvious points missed by those who hold that houses must be affordable to the average singleton, which is that average singletons tend not to buy houses anyway, they are in competition with couples with more buying power when they do try to buy, and that people tend to move up the ladder with equity from previous purchases. There are still buckets of equity in the housing market.

Graham_Devon

julieq wrote: »

As we're always being reminded Graham, affordability in the 1990 correction was affected by high interest rates and inflation stoked unemployment. This time affordability has been affected by the withdrawal of credit.

If you're telling me that I won't stretch for that dream Georgian Rectory when I can get a mortgage for the full asking price, I have a deposit, and my joint household income can stretch to it on available multiples, then I'm sorry, but you're not living on planet real life.

Obviously there are other obvious points missed by those who hold that houses must be affordable to the average singleton, which is that average singletons tend not to buy houses anyway, they are in competition with couples with more buying power when they do try to buy, and that people tend to move up the ladder with equity from previous purchases. There are still buckets of equity in the housing market.

Are you? Never realised I said that. You can do whatever you like.

I'm not quite sure how your first paragraph relates to "houses are always at the limit of affordability" when quite clearly, that's not the case and history backs this up.

Anyway, I'm off to watch a film. I just got bored

Cleaver

(or at least just make it smaller).

damanpunk

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Don't agree with the getting a new job and qualifications personally. If 20k is what people are in general earning, which is closer to the real 28k houshold income figure, then commodities need to be priced to reflect this. Housing is a commodity.

Its far easier to go get a better job/qualifications than wait for a 'correction' to come along that may never happen?!

I did and I don't regret it for a minute! At least then your in charge of your own future....

fc123

Ummm..the Katie P interview with Piers is on Itv Catch up now...

Cleaver

fc123 wrote: »

It's the wind chill factor though.....must be the carbs.....

In Wigan (and I'm sure the surrounding areas) you can buy a pie barm. This is a meat an potato pie (usually) in a roll / bap / cob / ciabatta or whatever your local term is for a bread roll.

So it's basically carbs (potato), wrapped in carbs (pastry), then encased in carbs (the 'barm').

Me and Mrs C haven't had one yet, but we're planning a day trip out to Wigan to sample one each. When in Rome...

Edit: found a pic.