Debate House Prices
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Sunday Media

Turnbull2000
Posts: 1,807 Forumite
Independent - Wealth Check - How can she buy a home when saving seem impossible
Dec 2003 IMF gives Brown borrowing warning
Sep 2005 IMF report Warning over £1 trillion mountain of debt
Sep 2005 Brown besieged over growth and borrowing plans
Dec 2005 IMF fires new warning over Britain's finances
Sep 2006 IMF warns over UK property crash
Oct 2007 IMF report UK house market is 'heading for crash'
Apr 2008 IMF: UK vulnerable to US-style housing slump
Broon, you utter cretin. Moving on...
Guardian - It's goodbye housing boom and hello subprim Britain
But if you still wish to take the plunge, here's some tips
Sunday Herald - First-time buyers, how to beat the credit crunch
Quite like the thought of No. 10, with any sensible, hard working, self-sufficient and well qualified youngsters fleeing the country that so royally f*cked them over.
Independent - Mortgage lenders prepare for the worst in housing marketJo should work on building a deposit of at least 10 to 15 per cent of a property's value in order to be accepted for the best mortgage deals, says Ms Sofat. But given the current conditions in the housing market, she can afford to hold back from buying until the dust has settled. "Property is historically overvalued and I think prices still have some way to fall," says Ms Bradshaw. "It usually takes around four years from the bubble bursting for prices to reach bottom, and then quite a few years after that before they start to rise again."
And as pointed out on HPC and then Guido Fawkes;Mortgage lenders are bracing themselves for a slump in property prices of up to 20 per cent, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. A housing market collapse, wiping an average of £40,000 off a home, is now being discussed by lenders. The warning deepens the gloom for the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, whose survival at the next general election hangs on the economy. He told leaders yesterday that the world faces "the first truly global financial crisis". Hosting the Progressive Governance conference of centre-left politicians, he called for an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to act as an "early warning system" for the global economy.
Dec 2003 IMF gives Brown borrowing warning
Sep 2005 IMF report Warning over £1 trillion mountain of debt
Sep 2005 Brown besieged over growth and borrowing plans
Dec 2005 IMF fires new warning over Britain's finances
Sep 2006 IMF warns over UK property crash
Oct 2007 IMF report UK house market is 'heading for crash'
Apr 2008 IMF: UK vulnerable to US-style housing slump
Broon, you utter cretin. Moving on...
Guardian - It's goodbye housing boom and hello subprim Britain
Independent - Will prices tumble like a pack of cards?The credit crunch, which has been optimistically described as a financial sector problem, has hit home with a vengeance in the past few days, in the shape of a mortgage famine. Worried homebuyers have watched helplessly as attractive deals have been shut down because of huge demand, and at least 1.4 million people face the prospect of having to pay much more when their current cheap loans expire.
Guardian - Why I'm desperate and angryLenders, it seems, are getting increasingly spooked about the possibility of a crash. And reading the market runes, it's easy to see why. Estate agents say buyer enquiries are plummeting as people's finances are squeezed by a combination of higher utility bills and rising food prices. The latest figures from the Land Registry show property values going into reverse in many parts of the country. But this may be just a taste of things to come. The big issue playing on the minds of lenders is the worsening credit crunch and the knock-on effect on the mortgage market – in other words, the raising of rates and the withdrawal of riskier products. Ultimately, this may feed through to the wider market, prompting further price declines.
Guardian - How first-time buyers' dreams are shatteredAs a woman in my early 30s who earns a decent salary, it doesn't seem unreasonable to want a place of my own after the arrested development of sharing a flat for more than a decade. Flatmates are fun but it would be nice to soak in a tub where in the worst case scenario stray hairs were at least those of a loved one.
But last year, as summer turned to autumn, I found I had gradually convinced myself to take on a level of debt so great as to make my Protestant forebears turn in their grave. The collapse of the American housing market has changed all that. Now, had I secured the five-times salary multiple I was considering, I would be lumped in with the borrowers now labelled 'sub-prime' in the US.
With the financial boom going bust and mortgage deals fast disappearing, it is new hopefuls who may be hit the worst. Many will find making their repayments increasingly difficult.
For would-be first-time buyers, the situation is grim. Even before the mortgage famine struck, the high cost of property had slashed the number of novice homeowners from 970,000 in 1988 to 300,000 last year, and sent the average age of a first-time purchaser up from the mid-twenties to 34. Without a substantial deposit - £34,000 was the average last year before the market seized up - aspiring first-timers have been frozen out.
Failed first-timers stuck in rented accommodation still may be better off than their peers who stretched themselves to the limit and beyond to buy. Capital Economics has estimated that a fifth of all mortgages taken out in that period could be classed as high-risk, either because they are for more than four and a half times income or for more than 100 per cent of the property price. If home values do fall sharply, the biggest victims will be the young people who climbed on to the property ladder right at its peak, just as they were in the late 1980s housing collapse.
But if you still wish to take the plunge, here's some tips

Sunday Herald - First-time buyers, how to beat the credit crunch
1: Beg a deposit More first-time buyers are turning to their parents for help with a deposit.
2: Buy with your parents If you can't afford a mortgage on your own, you might be able to persuade your parents to take on joint ownership.
3: Ask your parents to be guarantors.
4: Join forces with friends If your parents can't or won't help out, you could club together with friends or siblings.
5: Extend the term of the loan.
6: Take an interest-only mortgage You can cut your monthly payments if you pay off only the interest each month and none of the capital.
7: Seek government help The Scottish government runs a Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (Lift), a shared equity scheme.
8: Lower your sights Why not buy your first property in a cheaper area?
9: Play the waiting game. But if property inflation continues to rise, you could end up having to pay more for your dream home.
10: Go abroad Nearly half of first-time buyers would buy abroad to get on the property ladder, according to research from fair investment.co.uk.
Quite like the thought of No. 10, with any sensible, hard working, self-sufficient and well qualified youngsters fleeing the country that so royally f*cked them over.
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Comments
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quality post.
but re point 10. you quote from the DH article which, at a glance, concerns itself with Scotland's youth.
when you say 'youngsters fleeing the country', which country do you mean?
and if the answer is Scotland: then where does Alex Salmond fit in to HPI?miladdo0 -
Great stuff, Turnbull!poppy100
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I read the Brown quotes on the BBC website yesterday. I think he's trying to shift the blame onto "the world economy" so that if/when it all comes crashing down he claim to be merely a passenger to the world crisis.
I've just had a very obvious thought - if prices plateau for a while but FTB cannot obtain mortgages and BTL's are scared of crash then there will be no one buying in the FTB bracket and that'll pull the rest of the market down. Oh sorry, it's different this time.Happy chappy0
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