Households paying mortgages with credit cards

julieq

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Middle class is a wide definition.

Often the richer you think you are the more lavish the lifestyle.

Over extending oneself is so so easy.

Few admit to having problems. Read my second sig. The tide is high at the moment but at some point will turn.

Well by the shelter definition of "middle class" the numbers are clear. But since they don't publish their definition or their numbers or anything else except a Dr Evil style "one million", we can't know. So you might as well be reading tealeaves.

misskool

julieq wrote: »

Just wait until rates ROCKET misskool, you could be paying over £150 a month soon :O

Out of interest, what's the mortgage and what's it on?

errr.....3-bed semi in SE (commutable to London).

and I'm not telling you nowt else

stueyhants

julieq wrote: »

This isn't a dataset, it's a set of conclusions. They're not letting us see the underlying data and they're not publishing their methodology. Their conclusion is based (apparently) on the worst case.

I think the technical statistical term is "bag of cack".

But your quite happy to trust the Haliwide indices. Do they publish their underlying data set and methodology including all these special mix adjustment factors?

[Deleted User]

Thrugelmir wrote: »

One thing that intrigues me is how extensions and improvemnts are factored in. Many houses are substantially improved over the past 30 years. Extensions, conservatories, better quality kitchens and bathrooms, lighting, heating and even decor. So yes house prices have increased.

But what has been the net investment into improving property in £ ?

May explain the high increase over the past decade as property renovation programmes became a fad!

I think a lot depends upon location. My parents lived in a desirable villiage within commuting distance from Glasgow. When their house was built in the late 60's it won awards and people were queing up to buy them. But now they're just flat roofed monstrosities and they didn't increase in value nearly as well as they should (compared to other property in the area). However, they are on huge plots on the edge of the villiage overlooking beautiful contryside.

My parents didn't do any modernisation at all. We sold at the peak in 2007 and the house was basically a shell. It needed re-roofing, rewiring, new windows (it was single glazed!), replumbing...the lot. We asked EA advise on whether to do any of this ourselves and astonishingly she told us absolutely not - it would make no difference as the value was in the plot. She told us that earlier that year two other houses in the street that are side-by-side went on the market. One was like ours, the other fully modernised and in pristine condition. They sold for pretty much the same price.

My parents paid 11k in '69 and we got 240k in '07 (I said 230k elsewhere but I've just checked online). It beat all records for prices on the street. In good condition it wouldn't have got much more. The buyers would have needed to spend thousands to bring it up to standard.

We're about to put our old house on the market. It's 10 years old and still has the orginal kitchen/bathroom. We didn't really do anything to it - not even decoration. We asked the EA what we should do and again we were told that it really didn't matter as most people want to stamp their own mark on it anyway. Again, the house is in a desireable area.

Having said that, the house we're in now has been extended from a 3 bed/1 lounge to a 4 bed/2 lounge and they've done an outstanding job. The house was on a huge 1/3 acre plot so it could take the extra size. That's probably nearly doubled the value of this house. The sellers bought it new in 2003 for perhaps 70k or so. When we bought it just a month ago it was valued at 200k despite being in an area where prices dropped significantly during the crash and still haven't recovered much. We got it for 190k as they were in a hurry to move - it was only on the market 2 days. This house is in a less popular area and I guess the value of the plot doesn't exceed the value of the house!

nearlynew

................... the latest update on scarter's life story.

bo_drinker

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/up-to-one-million-households-using-sex-to-pay-mortgage-201001122372/

rictus123

Cool link bo drinker lol