another 'am i doing the right thing?' thread.

dopester

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I thought newly qualified City solicitors were on more like £50k?

Maybe in London, but not in Manchester. :rotfl:

£50K...? Maybe for the more senior solicitors to partners at her firm.

£18,000 - £20,000 during the 2 year "trainee-solicitor" period... 6 months in 4 different seats, and if you are offered a position... well I suppose it's up to you if you accept and take the package on the table. Although her salary compares well with her friends who are also solicitors, with those of a couple more years hitting £35K.

And after all the expense of 5 years at University, 1 year Post-Graduate (LPC and £7K course fee)... she doesn't have some magic fund saved up to pay for insanely over-valued houses.

neverdespairgirl

dopester wrote: »

Maybe in London, but not in Manchester. :rotfl:

£50K...? Maybe for the more senior solicitors to partners at her firm.

£18,000 - £20,000 during the 2 year "trainee-solicitor" period... 6 months in 4 different seats, and if you are offered a position... well I suppose it's up to you if you accept and take the package on the table. Although her salary compares well with her friends who are also solicitors, with those of a couple more years hitting £35K.

And after all the expense of 5 years at University, 1 year Post-Graduate (LPC and £7K course fee)... she doesn't have some magic fund saved up to pay for insanely over-valued houses.

Sorry, I misunderstood you - I thought you meant "City" as in Square Mile, Magic Circle type firms.

What type of law does she do?

I know the feeling about being short of cash after training - I did 3 years undergrad, bar school, 1 year Masters, and pupillage, and it didn't come cheap (-:

m00m00

although not in law, I did 3 years undergrad, 2 different masters degrees and a doctorate, all self funding, covering course fees (and one of the masters was at Oxford), and living costs. I know all about academia not coming cheap. By contrast my girlfriend is in the very finally stages of a fully funded PhD, and is actually going to have to take a cut in 'real' terms when going out into work.

dopester

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Sorry, I misunderstood you - I thought you meant "City" as in Square Mile, Magic Circle type firms.

What type of law does she do?

I know the feeling about being short of cash after training - I did 3 years undergrad, bar school, 1 year Masters, and pupillage, and it didn't come cheap (-:

Yes, apologies... my own fault for using "city"... I should have realised that would imply one of those top London firms. Although I've nothing but respect for those who come through at the top City firms (and all solicitors and barristers in general really) as they mostly only take the very sharpest graduates as trainees and those firms can put a very demanding work-load on you. And even when eventually qualified, £50K doesn't go far in London.

She specialised in a field which I'm hoping will give her some protection from the credit-crunch, and is making her way as a fee-earner - as even solicitors are not immune to credit crunch cut-backs - although a few more years of paying back £300 pm on her student loans - something which it seems both m00m00 and yourself fully understand.

Then according to mitchaa, after a few more years of saving for a deposit, and borrowing maybe x5 salary, she and her fellow professionals, can get in to a bidding frenzy to maintain the £180K price (when it was surely only like £75K a few years previously before the easy credit taps were turned off) of just one of the many hideous characterless slave-box houses in the back of nowhere - many of which are currently owned by people absolutely crippled by debt, fully over-extended, struggling to service their mortgage payments, with more and more forced sellers slashing their prices daily, and more worried about the imminent future. Yeah mitchaa - dream on with your supply and demand.

dopester

mitchaa wrote: »

Yes that's right.

£160k average homes will soon drop to £80k and we'll soon be paying for 1/2bed flats on our credit cards:rolleyes:

Supply and demand my friend. Doormongers like yourself are forgetting there are millions upon millions of young professionals still at home with parents,late 20's, early 30's that are just waiting to flood the market.

Back in the 90's living with parents beyond the age of 25 was unheard of. Now its completely normal due to the recent housing boom

As soon as prices start to fall like that. Bidding frenzy crazy. £80k properties will soon be pushed to £120k or so with bidding wars.

This has to be 1 of the worst internet sites i have come across for scaremongering:rolleyes:

My property is still rising, that's all that matters to me:p

Seriously mitchaa... can you not see it whatsoever???

Today's Telegraph.. and pay attention to this: "ludicrously overpriced"

First, after a long period of rising house prices, house prices have been falling for the past six months or so. Nothing much can or should be done about that. The house price boom became a bubble and, by any measure, residential housing in the UK is ludicrously overpriced.

A major correction is inevitable and on balance desirable. The exact magnitude of the eventual correction is anybody's guess. My estimate is a 30pc decline from the recent peak, but there are wide margins of error attached to this prediction - on both sides.

There will be significant increases in "negative equity", where the face value of the mortgage exceeds the value of the property offered as collateral, but that is the inevitable outcome of the bursting of a bubble and a decade or more of insane lending and borrowing practices: loan-to-value ratios of more than 100pc, perfunctory verification of the income and other resources of the borrowers, loan-to-annual-income ratios of six or seven times.

Basing home lending and borrowing decisions on the assumption that house prices can only go up is a recipe for disaster. Lessons must be learnt. Pain is the only effective teacher.

I can see they author doesn't want to fully commit to worse case scenario for fear of responses that he's "moronic" from people like you mitchaa who can not see how dark things might get for property. (no offence)

Your supply and demand argument to justify slave boxes at around £180K without falling substantially is totally unrealistic. I reckon some could be near worthless in a few years, not just £80K.... but near worthless and only housing the homeless via council orders.

So much of the UK economy has been built around ever increasing house prices... people's jobs revolve around it to a dangerous extent... both for jobs and economically for equity release for funding lifestyles and the shopping consumer boom.

180% - 300% house price rises in such a relatively short period of time and yet you are blinded to any argument they might not fall back considerably.

FTB's can't get the funding no more (easy credit tap is fully off) for x5 to x10 salary mortgages. FTBs are vital to the entire chain. The banks are reluctant to lend to anyone except for the soundest credit risks.

"ludicrously overpriced"

tap-tap-tap ... "Is anybody home?"

Not just a few percent... but ludicrously.

A bubble of epic proportions.

I wouldn't want to live near any of these slave boxes anyway. What do most of the people living in them do? They've all mostly got jobs which depend on others having cash to spend on consumer items with a lot of middle class wealth dependant upon the illusion of ludicrously high house prices.... b&q workers, bar owners, taxi-drivers, printers, make-work employees at government associations of one kind or another, (plumbers, electricians ect are safe imo).

Some areas could be devastated were we to enter a real recession/depression. Something has to give. The music is stopping everywhere you look... Slug & Lettuce latest bar chain in administration. Check for anecdotal evidence elsewhere to open your eyes to see how the crunch is beginning to hurt the real economy. I've got a feeling you still won't be able to accept the dangers mitchaa.. but I'm neither moronic or a doom-monger... just realistic to the logic and not living in some fantasy land.

mitchaa

dopester wrote: »

Yes, apologies... my own fault for using "city"... I should have realised that would imply one of those top London firms. Although I've nothing but respect for those who come through at the top City firms (and all solicitors and barristers in general really) as they mostly only take the very sharpest graduates as trainees and those firms can put a very demanding work-load on you. And even when eventually qualified, £50K doesn't go far in London.

She specialised in a field which I'm hoping will give her some protection from the credit-crunch, and is making her way as a fee-earner - as even solicitors are not immune to credit crunch cut-backs - although a few more years of paying back £300 pm on her student loans - something which it seems both m00m00 and yourself fully understand.

Then according to mitchaa, after a few more years of saving for a deposit, and borrowing maybe x5 salary, she and her fellow professionals, can get in to a bidding frenzy to maintain the £180K price (when it was surely only like £75K a few years previously before the easy credit taps were turned off) of just one of the many hideous characterless slave-box houses in the back of nowhere - many of which are currently owned by people absolutely crippled by debt, fully over-extended, struggling to service their mortgage payments, with more and more forced sellers slashing their prices daily, and more worried about the imminent future. Yeah mitchaa - dream on with your supply and demand.

You dream on thinking £160k houses are going to fall to £80k:rotfl:

I think my argument has far more credence than yours:D

Where is the fall may i ask? LR figures are still showing YOY rises, nationwide are still in the positive and currently so are halifax.

Next month halifax/nationwide may dip under, but what does that mean? A crash or a stagnation? A £150k property in April 2007 = £150k property in April 2008. hardly a crash my friend

My property has increased on paper £25-30k in that time period, depends on where you are in the UK i suppose.

Like i said before we'll soon be putting houses on our credit cards if you read half of the drivel on this site.

You are 1 of the main culprits for scaremongering. Only a fool would listen to some Joe Bloggs on an internet forum;)

No point in arguing about it though, your crystal ball is no better than mines. This housing crash has supposedly been awaiting from back in 2003. In 2008, we are still waiting:D

mitchaa

Zammo wrote: »

I'm so tired of shooting down this pathetic argument.

Perhaps you need to consider the advantages of waiting a few years and getting the same home for 50% less, or indeed a far bigger property in a better area for the same money.

Says who?

You........

Thanks:T

pinkshoes

Zammo wrote: »

I'm so tired of shooting down this pathetic argument.

Perhaps you need to consider the advantages of waiting a few years and getting the same home for 50% less, or indeed a far bigger property in a better area for the same money.

Don't you think it's irresponsible to advise someone to buy an overpriced and rapidly devaluing asset on a forum dedicated to money saving?

Well if I'd waited another 12 months, prices where I live would have gone up 10%, my rent would have gone up about £100 a month, and my landlord would have handed me my notice and made me move out because he took a job in another country and sold up, so I would have had to find somewhere to rent YET AGAIN, which is a f*cking nightmare in Oxford when you have 2 cars, but want to live in the city centre!!! Oh, not to mention more agency fees, credit check fees etc...

So although it's obvious all you can see is £££, to me, and to many others, a home is priceless! I don't really give a cr*p if it drops, because I have a home, no one is going to kick me out of it, I can park two cars, live in a lovely area, have lovely neighbours, and can easily afford my mortgage.

If they drop 50%, then so be it! Rent already pretty much covers mortgage interest in Oxford on smaller properties in a good location, so if prices drop that much then I'd buy a larger 2nd property and rent my current one out.

neverdespairgirl

m00m00 wrote: »

although not in law, I did 3 years undergrad, 2 different masters degrees and a doctorate, all self funding, covering course fees (and one of the masters was at Oxford), and living costs. I know all about academia not coming cheap. By contrast my girlfriend is in the very finally stages of a fully funded PhD, and is actually going to have to take a cut in 'real' terms when going out into work.

Wow, I think you win the prize for best-educated posted on this board (-:

What area are you in?

neverdespairgirl

dopester wrote: »

Yes, apologies... my own fault for using "city"... I should have realised that would imply one of those top London firms. Although I've nothing but respect for those who come through at the top City firms (and all solicitors and barristers in general really) as they mostly only take the very sharpest graduates as trainees

Not all solicitors, to be honest. I come across a few who are quite dim, and who need their hands holding when going to the loo, let alone going to court! But they aren't in big firms, ever, they are in small, high street firms. The better firms are very demanding and have very high-quality solicitors.

dopester wrote: »

She specialised in a field which I'm hoping will give her some protection from the credit-crunch, and is making her way as a fee-earner - as even solicitors are not immune to credit crunch cut-backs - although a few more years of paying back £300 pm on her student loans - something which it seems both m00m00 and yourself fully understand.

I'm now 30, and have finished paying back my student loans:T but it does take time and money!

dopester wrote: »

many of which are currently owned by people absolutely crippled by debt, fully over-extended, struggling to service their mortgage payments, with more and more forced sellers slashing their prices daily, and more worried about the imminent future. Yeah mitchaa - dream on with your supply and demand.

LOL! Couldn't agree more (-: