Str

mewbie_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

So I am enjoying my "gap years".

PN you have coined a term, excellent.

dopester

Cleaver it doesn't sound like you should waste much thought of whether home1 was a loss or not for you. No point working it out to the penny. You'd know if it had been a serious loss or not. Yes you might have been able to sell for more in 2007, but no point thinking back on it too hard.

Cleaver wrote: »

So, do you ever think that your cautious view is a mistake? Is there times over the past few years where you've thought, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."?

In 1999/2000 but especially 2001/2002 all of my closer friends were buying homes (one of whom traded up in 2005...). Personal circumstances, including helping family out with financial costs elsewhere, - so a bit of regret.

Re: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em - not when in just a few short years it costs 100%+ more in purchase price to join them sorry.

Cleaver wrote: »

None of these factors are essential, but all are considerations and making us want to move.

Those are seem like fair and well-thought out reasons for considering a move. In theory a HPC should be a good time to trade up. If you've begun to notice a downside trend change from the inhabitants of your flats, I hope it doesn't begin to impact that much on resale values - even if it was relatively good value at purchase.

As for locations in our general area, any thoughts I offer on an area might be very different from your experience (I think we've had good natured difference of opinions before). Depends, and I don't know all areas either. I might have some thoughts to give if you were buying a house in somewhere like Failsworth.

Still.. I can understand some of the attractions for City Centre living, and why you like it (this thread).

Cleaver wrote: »

I couldn't imagine living anywhere but a city centre.

Good we're all different though.

geoffky

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

:rotfl:

I've had a few of those.....

I thought the spring bounce would be over by June and the real recovery wouldn't happen til Spring 2010. I didn't see that the recovery would start last february, but it did.

I actually believed that house prices could drop by 35% on a national level, and posted accordingly frequently.

Last winter, I was pretty frustrated that the government had acted too slowly and with insufficient levels of funding to address the problem. I looked at other countries responses, particularly Australia, and saw how easy it was to avert the falls we were seeing through massive direct stimulus, as opposed to the indirect and lengthier process we were taking.

For a while, I really did believe that prices would fall by 35%, and I knew that if they did it would destroy the wider economy in the process.

With the benefit of hindsight, and being away from the confirmation bias factor of hpc, I see now that of course it would never have been allowed to happen, and that the government knew full well it would indeed have crippled the wider economy.

Still, they had me worried for a while...

Last winter was just the warm up... nothing has been done...just delayed,,,and thats scarey.

Cleaver

geoffky wrote: »

Last winter was just the warm up... nothing has been done...just delayed

Will your cliches and sound bites be increasing over the winter too?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Cleaver wrote: »

Will your cliches and sound bites be increasing over the winter too?

Another Netbot, obviously.

Martin must really worry about us invading the other boards and scaring the natives.:D

StevieJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you were going to move anyway at some point, and just chose now as the best time to do it, then you'd have had the transaction costs etc anyway.

Do you rent the eqivalent house to the one you sold?

crusty_toenail

I am an accidental STR.

Sold early 2008, moved in with the parentals and was due to buy a house in the summer. The house sale fell through (nothing to do with me) so I decided to rent instead of buy.

I could now buy back my house (mortgage free) without the 80k mortgage.

I have my house money in a 1 year fixed rate bond at 4%, The interest would nearly cover my low rent, but I'm not tapping it, just leaving it in the bond, as I don't need to!

My rent money is less than I paid for my mortgage per month, plus no council tax and I see my rent money the same as paying the interest on the mortgage.

I;m very happy with renting at the moment.

In my area house prcies are continuing to fall, and I'll not be looking to buy until at least 2011.:cool:

I know alot of STR's and they are very happy with their decisions and await phase 2 of the crash.

Treadmill

Phase 2 ? Is that the part that happens in about 2019 when prices peak and start falling again ?

Really2

crusty_toenail wrote: »

I could now buy back my house (mortgage free) without the 80k mortgage.

I take it you had a £1m - £700,000 house? (seeing the house you sold is now available at £80K less)
So you prefer renting than living rent free?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

crusty_toenail wrote: »

plus no council tax .

Interesting. Does the council know you live there?