The property boom is well underway now.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Kohoutek wrote: »

I'm perfectly happy renting with my mates at the moment actually.

Well that explains why you are so desperate for house prices to fall.

Do you know that you don't have to own property in order to be happy?

You and your mates are certainly making your landlord happy....:D

Graham_Devon

chucky wrote: »

hahaha you're a student

What is your point here exactly?

From what you have said about your high flying career, so were you once.

chucky

Graham_Devon wrote: »

What is your point here exactly?

From what you have said about your high flying career, so were you once.

it doesn't matter - but thanks for the bite, you just can't help yourself can you

Graham_Devon

chucky wrote: »

it doesn't matter - but thanks for the bite, you just can't help yourself can you

What?!

You get weirder by the hour!

SingleSue

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

So true.

People always think "this is it, house prices can never go higher".

In fact, many people were saying that in 2007, and already we have some areas where prices have crossed their previous peak.

In just 20 years time, 2007 prices will look ridiculously cheap, and a new generation of bears will be complaining and moaning about how easy the youth of today had it.

I actually agree with you on this (shock, horror!)...back in the mid 90's, we could see no way that prices could ever get back to what they had been, yet not even a decade down the line and prices had not only got back to where they had been but tripled (or more) in some cases.

Our house sold for £29k ish in 1997...in 2007 they were going for over £100k.

The market will recover in time, the old bad ways will creep in again, slowly at first and before we know it, it is 2030 and prices will be astronomical compared to today.

Harry_Powell

HammerSmashedFace wrote: »

Read Conrad's signature, says it all really, pure VI desperation. Come back in 12 months mate when the illusion created by borrowing and printing vast sums of money will feel like a lifetime ago.

You said that 12 months ago!

Harry_Powell

nembot wrote: »

I know very few who've overpaid, even with these low interest rates saving them hundreds per month.

But as Graham mentioned, there is only one real reason to go for an IO mortgage and there's no denying that.

Part of the problem you see, too many couldn't afford to buy the proper way.

I think this is the crux of the problem on this particular board. Everyone looks at their own peer group and decides that what they do represents the population as a whole. It doesn't.

Just like not all credit card debt is held by spendthifts (many people just have work expenses on them, are stoozing or just pay them off at the end of every month), not all interest only mortgages are held by first time buyers who are scratching out a living in order to buy their first home.

Lots of people have alternate vehicles for IO mortgages, such as ISAs or even endowments (not all endowments are duffers), others have them so that during periods of 'feast and famine' they can control their outgoings. I know at least two contractors where I work who are very highly paid and have IO mortgages. They overpay during the 'feast' times when they are working and they sit on the much lower IO mortgage during 'famine' times when they are between projects.

My own mortgage is a repayment and consists of an additional £300 per month. This payment makes a huge difference to my disposible income yet almost no difference to my mortgage or to my financial security. I would be much more secure if I were on an IO mortgage and putting the £300pm in a bank account than I am currently by putting it onto my mortgage.

Example, if I have a £200k mortgage and pay £300pm as repayment. After 5 years I would have a mortgage of £182000. If I lose my job, the bank won't 'let me off paying' because I had been a good boy and paid off £18k of the mortgage. They would be demanding their monies.

Alternatively, had I put that £18k in the bank, I would be secure for years to come and, at my leisure, be able to get another job without having to grab at the first crappy thing that came along, or I could sell the house without having to resort to a fire sale.

I think this is why I think the MFWers are a bit naive when they talk about how overpaying makes them 'secure'. No, locking all that money in a mortgage makes you less secure, not more so.

Emy1501

Harry_Powell wrote: »

You said that 12 months ago!

Private debt been transferred to the publice sector around the world. We know that this debt has nowhere else to go and so far there is little sign of the debt being contained.

The government will not be able to prop up the market like they did last year with their various scheme. The public debt has to be halved within 4 years and the banks have to find their own ways of providing mortgages. Even people like Kate Barker at the BOE has said recently that its likely the housing market will struggle in the near future. The housing minster has also commented on the fact that homeownership reduced recently as a good thing and repossession maybe best for some.

I suspect these people are giving signs of things to come within the next 2 years when cuts have to be made who ever is in power.

HammerSmashedFace

Harry_Powell wrote: »

You said that 12 months ago!

I think if you look back at my posts 12 months ago, you will find that I was forecasting the ending of illusion economics within 24 months, as I was pretty sure that Labour would hang on to the death, which is what has happened.

Harry_Powell

Emy1501 wrote: »

Private debt been transferred to the publice sector around the world. We know that this debt has nowhere else to go and so far there is little sign of the debt being contained.

The government will not be able to prop up the market like they did last year with their various scheme. The public debt has to be halved within 4 years and the banks have to find their own ways of providing mortgages. Even people like Kate Barker at the BOE has said recently that its likely the housing market will struggle in the near future. The housing minster has also commented on the fact that homeownership reduced recently as a good thing and repossession maybe best for some.

I suspect these people are giving signs of things to come within the next 2 years when cuts have to be made who ever is in power.

I actually agree with the housing minister. Unlike some of the bears on here who think home ownership is a basic human right, I believe that some people are so financially inept that they should remain in rented accomodation for life. Reposession (and therefore a return to renting) is indeed the best for some people.

However, everyone else who can balance a cheque book will continue to aspire to own a house or to own a larger house and will continue to do so. I note that while some pundits are forecasting a struggling housing market in the near future, not even the most bearish (apart from on here) are reporting that the housing market will struggle for decades.

I'm 25 and will see plenty of house price corrections over my period of home ownership (hopefully 60 years), this doesn't deter me from buying a home nor does it make me believe that there wont also be periods of boom within that 60 year period.