House Price Crash Discussion Thread

jamescredmond

dudleyboy wrote: »

I must say, I'm often bemused by the whole "renting is dead money" arguement.

I don't begrudge paying the gas and electricity companies for the energy I use.
I don't begrudge paying the supermarket for the food that I eat.
I don't begrudge paying the petrol station for the fuel I put in my car.
And while I don't own the home in which I live, I don't begrudge paying the owner for permitting me to live there.

I do, however, begrudge the government slashing interest rates during a time of escalating inflation and doing their very best to maintain the housing bubble in an effort to prevent the complete collapse of the UK economy and financial system. Amazing to think that the man who now runs the country used to count its beans. I hold him personally responsible for this dire situation we all face, for encouraging the country to believe that they were wealthier than they are and for creating a problem that it was his job to prevent.

The truth is, at any point over the past 7 years my partner and I COULD have taken out a mortgage, COULD have got on the property ladder and COULD now be "home owners". The fact is we CHOSE not to.

Why? Quite simply, we were not prepared to take out a 100% or a 125% mortgage. Instead we CHOSE to save up a deposit. We were not prepared to take out a mortgage that was 6 times our income. Instead we CHOSE to wait until the housing pyramid scheme collapsed, the government intervened or until we had saved up enough of a deposit. We were not prepared to face the possibility of being in negative equity when the housing bubble burst (at the age of 30 I'm old enough to remember the crisis of the 1990s) and we were not prepared to buy into the borrowed wealth lifestyle of the nation in an effort to not feel like second class citizens for not being on the property ladder. Instead, we CHOSE to hold on, wait and do what was right for US. And I'm pleased we did.

Over the past 5 years we have put all our spare money into repaying our student debts (both undergrad and post-grad) and we're now in a position to start pumping the same amounts into our deposit. Sure, we've gone without but I have to say how glad we are that we were able to repay them during a period of such cheap (0%) and easily available credit! Repaying £1000s on continuous 0% deals certainly helped us improve our financial position. I'm so glad we don't have them now in this current economic and financial climate! (Ooh, I almost felt like I was gloating then... is that what it's felt like to be a home owner over the past 7 years?)

And I also have to say, it's frustrating that despite mass inflation (house prices being the greatest!) the government is actually CUTTING interest rates! I understand and appreciate why but, again, it's to solve a problem that is of their own doing. As my parents always said, prevention is better than cure...

So I guess we'll just have to continue to save up that deposit the good old fashioned way. Even if the interest rates aren't going to be in our favour, by the time we've saved up our 10% we will already have made a killing... because with house prices destined to crash, it'll be a lot easier to save 10% of £90,000 than 10% of £180,000... and make no mistake, my rent is a lot less than most people's mortgage repayments. I can't say I'm feeling any pinch at the moment.

Irrespective of what optimistic stakeholders may say, prices are going to fall and sharply. All of those boasting about the equity in their properties, be sure to come back and let us know how much it is after the crash.

The next decade is going to be a pretty bleak one for all of us (especially when compared to the previous one) but at least people might start coming to their senses once again.

I wasn't boasting dudleyboy, just pointing out to pickledpink what a 'loser' I am! (and will prob. be an even bigger loser 2yrs from now!!)

dudleyboy

jamescredmond wrote: »

I wasn't boasting dudleyboy, just pointing out to pickledpink what a 'loser' I am! (and will prob. be an even bigger loser 2yrs from now!!)

I was posting in response to PickledPink too, James.

RecoveringAlcoholic

I was a millionaire..............................


but I !!!!!! it up against the walls.

WTF?_2

Here's a somewhat on-topic article (more of a rant, really) from yesterday's Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/martin_samuel/article3634764.ece

The economy is false. The economy is a lie. The economy is a fictional set of numbers cooked up during a boom period that is almost over, and six months from now nothing will add up. The cost of a parking ticket grew to be completely disproportionate in relation to the offence committed because everyone was sawing it off, so nobody cared. Some twerp slapped a sticker demanding one hundred notes for a minuscule oversight on your windscreen and you knew it was preposterous, but you could afford it. And now you can't. And now you are going to realise how overpriced and bogus the minutiae of British life are, and Gordon is panicking because there is no way he can make this sustainable; yet the artifice of commerce and government relies on your expanding wallet.


Yep - the mad years of House Price Inflation have trashed Britain and left it in very poor shape indeed. Everyone has been so busy on an equity-funded borrowing spree that they've failed to notice how much poorer they've actually become in real terms. Now that the la-la price rises in the house market are coming to an end, it's time to stomach the hangover.

skap7309

merlinthehappypig wrote: »

This is pathetic.

Whilst there are some decent and thought provoking discussions on this thread, every so often it degenerates into this name calling and 'mine's bigger than your's' stupidity.

Even some well respected posters have fallen into the trap this time.

Can we call it a day and get back to the discussion in hand?

Personally, I won't be posting again on this thread until we see a return to serious discussion and tolerance of other people's viewpoints.

Well said.

As a FTB with a massive interest on whats happening to the market i check on here everyday, reading every post. Without pointing the finger there are 3 or 4 complete d*cks writing stupid, meaningless posts about how well they are doing in life over the next poster. Get a get grip or get lost. No one gives two sh*ts. (Rant over)

John_Pierpoint

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/mar/25/houseprices.housingmarket

m00m00

Radford is currently putting a bid in to become Dante's 5th Circle of hell.

and doing a good job of it.

Turnbull2000

Been watching this neighbouring property since last Summer.

http://www.adamsonspropertycentre.com/cms/propertyimages/2%20Grand%20Parade200308.pdf

It was listed for six months with another estate agency at a ludicrous £500,000 and then removed in December. The owners then spent January decorating and painting the property, reduced price to £450,000 and listed with this new estate agency. Evidently there was still no interest, as the price has just been reduced to £425,000.

Anybody care to guess what it will eventually go for?

Following a valuation of 190K last year, my sister will be selling up shortly following divorce. It's a very tastefully decorated 3 bed terrace near the sea front of Whitley Bay. I reckon the EA will go for 175K.

pickledpink

dudleyboy wrote: »

I don't begrudge paying the gas and electricity companies for the energy I use.
I don't begrudge paying the supermarket for the food that I eat.
I don't begrudge paying the petrol station for the fuel I put in my car.
And while I don't own the home in which I live, I don't begrudge paying the owner for permitting me to live there.




Well,

Maybe you don't begrudge paying for gas, electricity, fuel and food - we all have to do that!! But you buy them with the intention of USING them. When you buy a house (as YOU clearly want to) it doesn't evaporate into thin air after you've used it!

Just because we are going through a slump now does not mean it will last forever! If you thought that you wouldn't be saving up a deposit to buy a place of your own would you?

John_Pierpoint

m00m00 wrote: »

Radford is currently putting a bid in to become Dante's 5th Circle of hell.

and doing a good job of it.

"5th circle: The Wrathful and Sullen. These souls are submerged into the river Styx, which surrounds the city of Dis. The wrathful emerge from the dirty waters while the sullen are completely submerged."

Fits quite well, an old disused canal and a river go through Radford somewhere - not quite sure what that makes the centre of Nottingham - worst crime statistics in the country!?
When property hunting, I chanced upon Radford. I got cut up by the flash motor driven by what looked like the local drug dealing gangster, and remarked to my companions: "This looks like the sort of area where if you stop too long at the lights, someone steals your alloy wheels".

http://www.adamsonspropertycentre.com/cms/propertyimages/2%20Grand%20Parade200308.pdf

Oh dear, not my cup of tea at all.
Turnbull, don't take it personally if you live next door, but somehow this picture reminds me a a cross between the East end of London homes made of converted shipping containers and those Glasgow over spill estates, where whole communities were split up and dumped miles from anywhere on the moorside.
Perhaps I'm just a soft southerner - it is something to do with no architecture and no trees = no personality.

Enough of "architectural determinism", a home is more than bricks and mortar - but I would not want to buy into this place.

John.