ITN News At Ten, right now, house price rises immensely exciting

buglawton

What you say is true of modern Bombay, Delhi or maybe Beijing. Of Yorkshire or any shire? I'm not so sure. It's an attitude of mind.

fart

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Methinks you have been too exposed to the 'Devon School of Economics'.

Presumably, by the same thinking, if you wanted to buy second hand cars, you would always buy the sort that depreciate the quickest on the basis that a 2 year old car of the size you want will be 'cheaper' to buy than one that holds its value better.

For most people, their house is ultimately their biggest asset. There comes a time when you are in your 'last house' and the mortgage is paid off. Even if you plan to die in it and pass it onto children (as opposed to equity release or downsizing) I cannot believe why you would want its value to be impaired.

In practice, as we know, house prices can go down (as well as belly up!) but they are a long term asset and should be treated as such.

Perhaps you are confused by the strategy - that rabid house price rampers would endorse - that when you can afford to trade up, then waiting for the next 'downturn' is not a bad idea.

100% spot on. I've just bought outright because of the expected upturn in the market.

People need to stop claiming they NEED things which in reality they WANT - waiting for that downturn in the market to ensure they get maximum for their money is the sensible option, but people will overstretch themselves then blame it on the new boom. Simple theory is only spend what you can afford, and if you're in a position to buy now at a stretch you should just be sitting tight and waiting for a market which will give you maximum bang for the buck.

The only downside i see is that prices going up surely mean sales/mortgages going down slightly? Maybe, i don't know, i'm not an economist or even interested in such things.

Your car analogy is spot on - the people wanting prices to remain static are living in some fairytale land of cookies and marshmallow. Not wanting something you own to be resellable at a good price if you choose to sell is the outlook of an idiot. Buying a £20k car and then being miffed because it's gone up to £22k because a few % worth of people cannot now afford it is pretty stupid.

I also don't get the whole 'people wanting to upsize should want the upgrade to be affordable' folks. It's all relative; if your house goes up in value by 5% then a new place is most probably gonna be 3-8% more expensive than it was. You get more, you can afford more. Some in here going on as if the current house will remain static whereas any future purchase will cost a bomb more than the same house would at this moment in time.