House Price Crash Discussion Thread

WTF?_2

the_mighty_spurs wrote: »

what worries us is that we could keep on struggling and eventually our payments will go down. If we buy in two years our mortgage will no doubt be higher and then we'll be back in the same boat.

In two years your debt won't have significantly reduced (not if you're having problems even now making repayments), your house will likely be worth a lot less and you'll have the worry of an economic recession in the background.

You could now clear your debts, put 30k in the bank and reduce monthly outgoings by 200 quid.

Your choice.

jamescredmond

pickledpink wrote: »

The problem with investing equity from a house sale into a savings account is that the interest doesn't always cover the monthly cost of a rental. On top of that, you are not adding to your capital by compounding the interest and could find that with inflation your savings eventually become less and less in terms of value.

It's also very tempting when you have easy access to money to dip into it! Debt and hard times can be very depressing, and some people find it very tempting to treat themselves to the odd holiday; new car; gadgets etc..........when they're feeling down.

I know of a woman who after her divorce (in the early 90's) put her share of the matrimonial home (£100,000) into a savings account. She then rented a flat whilst deciding what to do....took a cheap package holiday..then another...then needed a car........eventually lost her job...........and within 3 years all her equity from the house had gone! She's now renting a dingy one-bed council flat and kicks herself every day for being such a fool.

I know not everyone is as silly as that - but when debt is looming, and you have easy access to money - it is very, very tempting to treat yourself - again and again and again!

There was actually a report about that sort of scenario in one of the
broadsheets over the weekend. It advised people to stay put if they could.

I've hit the 'thanks' button but with reservations.

your maths don't add up.

turning to the human element, I can empathise. I've known plenty who have tried to spend their way out of depression, with inevitable results.

but let's get back to post.

and could people stop ganging up on pickledpink?

and could pickledpink stop being so reactive?

regards

harryhound

ramtec wrote: »

You'd be silly not to bite their arm off let alone their hand

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=6395212&highlight=gazundering#post6395212

A lot changes in 6 months! While attempting to find this old posting, I tried searching on various forms of the verb "to gazunder" using both the forum's search engine and the wonderful google search engine.

I did this once before to post a link to what is available at the Land Registry for house buyers to see and got few hits. This time it took me ages to locate this entry. MSE is now full of threads with "gazunder...." in them.

Property is a nasty illiquid investment, anyone trying to sell at present runs the risk of getting stuck in a chain and running up high legal and survey costs.

The property in question 9 months ago was subject to a SECOND mortgage and under questioning the woman trying to sell it suggested it must be worth what she was asking, "because that is what her mortgage companies had allowed her to borrow on it" (OMG). If the poster's Register Entries show both of the (in my opinion) sub prime lenders, the buyer should be sniffing the air like a dog sensing fear.

Meanwhile another source of mortgages dries up:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7322427.stm

dudleyboy

the_mighty_spurs wrote: »

should have added also that we would be renting for £200 less a month than we are paying now for a larger house in a nicer area with a bigger bedroom for our son. Want to put about £30,000 in a savings account or perhaps invest it? Not sure whether selling is the right thing to do or to continue as we are, struggling for a while longer. Our curent mortgage has 27 years left to go. So technically if we rent for two years then get a 25 year mortgage we shouldn't have lost anything?

Hey there. I recommend you post on the DFW board if you're struggling to meet repayments as users over there will be able to help you cut back on your expenses so you don't feel the pinch so much.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=76

You'd also be better off starting a new thread that's specifically devoted to your problem (rather than unintentionally hijacking this one ) as you're likely to get more help from the wider forum user base. Good luck.

John_Pierpoint

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

This posting is not directly related to house prices BUT there seems to be some muddled thinking that classes all immigrants as equal:

There are two important measures of immigrant:
1. Those who have skills and a work ethic versus those who do not.
2. Those who could go home versus those who cannot.

We spend a fortune per child on education and then another fortune per person investing to create a job.

There is an over large population in this country and almost certainly in this planet. Some countries, especially India and China, are aborting (killing) thousands of future citizens, because their families/the state don't want them.
We have immigrants arriving in this country with few skills at a rate 50 - 200K per year, that we cannot repatriate because their country of origin won't recognise them and have them back. Very few of these people will have any "demand" for housing,
where economic "demand" is defined as need plus access to money.

So if there is a recession then this previous posting is only partly true:
"With a dramatic downturn in the economy coming this way, this large transient population may head back home. Poland and other Easter Euro countries are currently playing catch-up with the West."

Unfortunately our social security system is likely to be overwhelmed as the valued, skilled, productive migrants move on and we are left with the ones that cannot move on, to be added to our own unproductive citizens forced onto social security.

I really cannot see these people supporting the housing market, more likely would be new regulations to make it harder for BTL landlords trying to evict them.

Labours "trick", on coming back to power, was to create the conditions for near full employment, where those who wanted to work could get work, thus cutting the burden of social security. However this time it is going to be difficult to create a low interest economic boom. The thought of 1970's style "Staglflation" should be giving the government sleepless nights.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7322825.stm

izzwizz_2

Housing Decline hits construction

A slowing housing market has hit the UK construction industry, with growth falling to its lowest level since 1996, according to a report.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7323589.stm

izzwizz_2

Annual house price inflation down

Annual house price growth continued to fall although prices remained unchanged in February, according to figures from the Land Registry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7324006.stm

izzwizz_2

Home loans rate rise for existing customers

NatWest yesterday became the “first lender to increase repayments for existing customers,”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/01/nloans101.xml

WTF?_2

izzwizz wrote: »

[/font][/size]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/01/nloans101.xml

Ouch - CRUNCH.

You know even after all the facts and figures posted here, there will still be foolish posters on this group protesting that all is well with the housing market and that FTBers should still be getting into it. :sad:

How much more news to people have to read before they catch on?

m00m00

the key to the land reg stats is the drop off in volume of sales

that one is going to really hurt