Renting vs buying in 2017

qwert_yuiop

tara747 wrote: »

Anyway. Interest rates have risen, finally. Only to the very low level they were at last summer, but it's a start.

Yes, it’s pretty insignificant, and it seems it didn’t have the expected result of increasing the value of the pound, because the markets feel that there won’t be any more rises soon. So mortgage holders can relax for a while yet. I don’t think this will have any major influence on prices. What’s everyone else think?
From what I can gather, London seems to be on the slide, but that’s been the feeling for a couple of months.

RikM

Whoop-de-do my mortgage rate will go up to 0.98%...
Still a heck of a long way from 15%... Ah, weren't the 80s fun...

qwert_yuiop

RikM wrote: »

Whoop-de-do my mortgage rate will go up to 0.98%...
Still a heck of a long way from 15%... Ah, weren't the 80s fun...

Yes, but dear mortgages back then kept prices low, so what savings you had went a lot further. I wasn’t in the market then, but I’ve read there was a drop in real terms every year between 1985 and 1991 in Northern Ireland.

RikM

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Yes, but dear mortgages back then kept prices low, so what savings you had went a lot further. I wasn’t in the market then, but I’ve read there was a drop in real terms every year between 1985 and 1991 in Northern Ireland.

"in Northern Ireland" - key point. You can't take the market here as at all representative... I can recall looking at the house prices when I first visited NI, and they were silly low.
House with acres of land and a pool for 30k. Mid-terrace in Belfast for *less* than the price of a second-hand car!
They've adjusted since then, but are still on the low side IMO, having peaked a bit above where they should be they subsequently haven't recovered the way I would have expected.
But then I grew up in SE England...

qwert_yuiop

RikM wrote: »

"in Northern Ireland" - key point. You can't take the market here as at all representative... I can recall looking at the house prices when I first visited NI, and they were silly low.
House with acres of land and a pool for 30k. Mid-terrace in Belfast for *less* than the price of a second-hand car!
They've adjusted since then, but are still on the low side IMO, having peaked a bit above where they should be they subsequently haven't recovered the way I would have expected.
But then I grew up in SE England...

“Peaked a bit above” - there’s that English understatement we hear about.

According to my parents, it used to be quite common to save your money and buy a small house without borrowing at all. I don’t remember them having any rich friends, either.

tara747

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Yes, it’s pretty insignificant, and it seems it didn’t have the expected result of increasing the value of the pound, because the markets feel that there won’t be any more rises soon. So mortgage holders can relax for a while yet. I don’t think this will have any major influence on prices. What’s everyone else think?
From what I can gather, London seems to be on the slide, but that’s been the feeling for a couple of months.

Looks like the government might collapse this week, if it's true that the PM knew about Priti Patel's meetings with the Israeli government. That might destabilise the economy more than a 0.25% interest rate rise!

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Yes, but dear mortgages back then kept prices low, so what savings you had went a lot further. I wasn’t in the market then, but I’ve read there was a drop in real terms every year between 1985 and 1991 in Northern Ireland.

True.

motorguy

I think 0.25% is that miniscule it wont impact anyone (except BMW drivers).

Even a gradual increase over a number of years will just see people move to the best deals when their tie in periods are up. I dont think there are too many people with negative equity now given we're seeing a small year on year increase, that would struggle to remortgage elsewhere to a lower rate if they really had to.

Likewise i dont forsee any crash happening here - maybe a bit of stagnation or very small decreases at worst if the economy does go pear shaped.

Not bothered personally.

I work in Manchester for part of the week and a guy i work with just sold his semi detached for £775,000. Some semis here are now breaking £1,000,000. Those sorts of prices would make me worry.... thats Greater Manchester too, not London.

qwert_yuiop

She needs to be fired today. I wonder what was in it for her?

Do the DUP see themselves as friends of Israel? Friendly enough to give our money to their army? I’d a relative in the inniskillings who was wounded by Jewish terrorists back in the Palestine administration era in 1948. They tried to bomb London then, too. Worth remembering.

What a mess.

motorguy

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

She needs to be fired today. I wonder what was in it for her?

What a mess.

Happens in politics regularly. Hardly a mess in the grand scheme of things. She'll be fired.

tara747

I don't think we've been told everything. The PM needs to clarify what she knew and when.