how many REALLY think there'll be a crash rather than a stabilisation ?

nicola1982_2

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

Not everybody who rents is a wannable home-owner.



GG

I absolutely agree. I'm a renter who will maybe buy one day, but right now am happy renting long-term and buying just isn't on my list of things to do right now. I had a colleague who bought her first home this year on 50% share and gloated at me as though she had something I couldn't get. My partner and I could afford a decent house (100% of it!!) but we want to start a family in a nice area, without having to worry about paying to fix boilers etc right now. The way we see it a house is a place to live in not a must have investment. My colleague just could not get her head around this and made comments about how I must earn less than her or that I must be terrible at budgeting because clearly I couldn't afford a house - this type of attitude irritates me, renters are not neccessarily just the poor relatives of the buyers! (I didn't have the heart to tell the cheeky ***** that I thought her house was smaller than the doll's house I was building and not worth half of its value!)

If there was a crash I doubt we'd rush out to buy, unless we found a dream home on the market - but that would be regardless of the state of the market.

Personally I see a different picture to many of you because I live in the midlands - house prices are at a stand still, flats decreasing. I think some areas will crash and some won't. I predict areas like Hull to be the first to go, just type Hull in rightmove and see how many properties are on sale for under 70k - you'll be amazed!

CYBERCIDERSAVER

There was a couple of statistics that I found very interesting.


1 There were 350 000 FTB mortgages in the last year and 330 000 BTL mortgages taken out. In 1997 I think they said there was 40 000 BTL

2 The number of NI numbers given to foreign migrants to this country was 700 000 (I think in the last year

These two facts have got to reduce the chance of a major crash.

We once had a "lady" who called with a petition against some housing that was being proposed on some old waste ground. Her attitude was that with the flats and low cost housing that was included in the plan, the area would go downhill due to those that would be "renting".

I gave her the pen back and politely told her that I would not be signing as I was renting and to go away! oh the look on her face!

ixwood

Number 3!! 1/3 odds of door 1 being the jackpot. 1/2 odds of door 3 beng the jackpot. Or am I being stupid and missed something?

As for prices/crash, hell yes!! IMO

keeperbear

dannyboycey wrote: »

To name a few of the stupid opinions I've seen here. I can't believe how bullish some of the people on this forum are! The irony is that the site is called moneysavingexpert, not moneypi5singawayexpert.

Just because you don't agree with other people's opinions you label them 'stupid'. How mature of you. Quite honestly, I cannot believe how bearish some people on these forums are, but I don't think they are stupid. One poster even said bring on a recession and a widespread house price crash. A recession will mean lots of the moneysaving community being made redundant, and who really wants that?

keeperbear

nicola1982 wrote: »

I'm a renter who will maybe buy one day, but right now am happy renting long-term and buying just isn't on my list of things to do right now. My partner and I could afford a decent house (100% of it!!) but we want to start a family in a nice area, without having to worry about paying to fix boilers etc right now. The way we see it a house is a place to live in not a must have investment.

Most homeowners also see their house as a place to live in and not an investment. Renting long-term makes absolutely no financial sense. In 25 years time, a homeowner will be virtually retired with no rent to pay. As a long-term renter, you will be virtually retired with an inflation-adjusted rental payment to find every month.

As for not worrying about paying for fixing a boiler, do you know that your rent includes charges for repairs? For example, if the roof needs repairing, your rent will be going up eventually.

ixwood

http://www.moneyweek.com/file/99/property-article-listing.html

The fact that every property article on there suggests things aren't looking good for house prices, is quite telling IMO.

Things are on the slide and the smart money is getting out IMO.

I feel sorry for all the ill informed "must not miss out (any more)" recent buyers.

Dithering_Dad

keeperbear wrote: »

Just because you don't agree with other people's opinions you label them 'stupid'. How mature of you.

This is rich coming from someone who regularly calls people muppets and fools when he doesn't agree with their financial strategies - like earlier on this very thread, when he was calling STR's muppets for selling up. How hypocritical of you.

Dithering_Dad

keeperbear wrote: »

Most homeowners also see their house as a place to live in and not an investment. Renting long-term makes absolutely no financial sense. In 25 years time, a homeowner will be virtually retired with no rent to pay. As a long-term renter, you will be virtually retired with an inflation-adjusted rental payment to find every month.

As for not worrying about paying for fixing a boiler, do you know that your rent includes charges for repairs? For example, if the roof needs repairing, your rent will be going up eventually.

Oh Keeperbear, not again with your "most homeowners don't see their homes as an investment"! Where is the proof to back this statement? I have lots of friends, colleagues and family who own homes and they do see it as their largest investment and they do worry when prices go down.

I recall you saying on a different thread that you intended using your 1 bed flat as a vehicle for retirement and that you intended selling it and moving to a cheaper country. If that's not looking at your home as an investment then I don't know what is! How would you feel when the time comes to retire and your flat's value drops?

As far as financial sense, some people rent so that they are flexible location-wise for work, which can enhance their job prospects. Others would rather invest their money in a varied portfolio rather than all of it into a single investment such as a property. Yet more do not want to commit financial suicide by overstretching to buy a property on 100% mortgages (surely this makes "absolutely no financial sense"?).

When we bought our houses KB, they were far cheaper and so were our mortgages (even if they were at higher rates), try saving up a 30k deposit and STILL then having to find £1200 - £1800 a month for your mortgage. Rental yields are low, which means instead of paying a £30k deposit and then £1000/month in interest payments and investing £300 in actual capital payments (for a £1300 per month mortgage), they can pay £800 in rent and invest the £30k lump sum and the remaining £500 per month in stocks.

In 25 years when they come to retire, they will have just as much capital as you, but be able to get at it much easier and not have to go through estate agents and solicitors or to find buyers in a depressed housing market to get the money. They could buy that villa next door to you in the cheaper foreign country, but not have to wait for their house to sell.

poppy10_2

Just think about how many people these days are not bothering to invest in a pension, saying "my house is my pension"

For them, their home is most definitely an investment - they are counting on the value continuing to rise and rise to fund them through their old age. If the value drops, they will sell up and invest elsewhere.

mystic_trev

poppy10 wrote: »

Just think about how many people these days are not bothering to invest in a pension, saying "my house is my pension"

For them, their home is most definitely an investment - they are counting on the value continuing to rise and rise to fund them through their old age. If the value drops, they will sell up and invest elsewhere.

I agree. However if Property prices stagnate for the next few years, many of the recent BTL'ers won't be very happy. Take my two (for instance) bought over 10 years ago they were yielding nearly 10% gross, now, due to HPI I just get over 2% nett, so it makes no sense unless Prices continue upwards in the next few years! Why (as many newbie BTL'ers are doing) Invest in a negative geared product with little upside?