'House Prices: Would you prefer them to rise or fall?' poll results/discussion

moggylover

PhilDS wrote: »

If that is true, that is the real thing wrong with society (ie. Labour government). My taxes pay for you to live in a housing asscociation flat, but, if you can get a mortgage, you can buy another? Why couldn't you live in that place? I'm not having a go at you personally, just the rules that would allow you to do this.

I see this silly comment about taxes paying for people to live in association/council accomodation all the time - and it makes me quite angry!
People in these houses PAY rent: and that rent pays for these houses - most of which have been owned by the councils or associations for many years and many of which are in pretty shoddy condition because Councils like slum landlords do not maintain THEIR property particularly well - just wait for its value to rise. Many people in social housing pay way over the amount that they would be paying had they been paying a mortgage for a few years (and really only 3 or 4 years - not 20).

The taxpayer thus "OWNS" that house and IS the Landlord - when these houses get sold (which I do not approve of I might add) the money from its sale SHOULD go to re-investment in social housing - but it does not - and benefits the council tax payers (or at least should if Councils did not spend so much on their entertaining budgets - lol).

Why do so many people have a problem with social housing? Why can they not actually see that any morally decent society will not have a problem with this system? Taxpayers do not actually loose anything!

I personally started buying my own home, on my own, 26 years ago - because at that time, in my home town of Slough, I had absolutely no hope of social housing as a single person (couldn't even make it on to a waiting list). The cost of renting a bedsit type flat on my own was going to be about £180/month and even sharing a house with others was going to cost that: I looked into what a mortgage of £27,000.00 was going to cost and it was very little more than the rents - and I would have TWO bedrooms - so I borrowed 4 times income and rented out the second bedroom (rather more cheaply than the going rate I might add) which allowed me to have a HOME, and an investment, and just about pay the bills! I was also able to share my good fortune with someone else who needed a roof over their head - did I begrudge them that - NO! I was helping them - and they were helping me!

Having now owned my own home (this is my third) for 26 years I pay about £235 a month for my own property which is far less than half the council rents around here and I will be mortgage free later this year when the huge endowment I took on my second house (and carried onto my third, far smaller, mortgage) matures.

I consider myself VERY lucky! Do I begrudge others the years they will pay rent and never "own" anything for it - no I do not!

moggylover

BTW - I do believe that if someone in social housing owns another property then they should HAVE to go live in that one - but that is because I am a Socialist who believes that we should ALL have a home before anyone can afford two!

moggylover

Hi, don't think I would go for any of those directly. I do think that many areas need a fairly hefty drop in house prices first, and then a stability in the growth of property values: somewhere in line with wages and inflation - not just leaps and bounds due to demand.

However, the only way we will ever stop the leaps and bound is to fulfill demand - and unless we want the whole country built on, we may have to look to some pretty radical changes: which would take a social charter which would have the right wing having heart attacks - and probably taking out a contract on me for even suggesting them! lol

Only thing that is for certain is that we have to acknowledge that EVERYONE is entitled to a home - whether rented or bought - that they can afford, and that those with too much/too many make it bloody hard on those that do not have! Which is the same old story of mankinds lack of ability to share isn't it!

moggylover

going2die_rich wrote: »

B.

Any fall would harm the economy. You also need some growth in order for owning your own home to have some value in it, as if it was just stable what would be the point, you might as well invest else where. Stable also tends to mean your below inflation in real terms.

A fall will not, long term, harm the housing economy - it will merely mean that there will actually BE first time buyers in the market to start the chain. Furthermore, the point of owning your own home IS owning your own home, not its' value: if you want an investment rather than a home - gamble elsewhere. If we all stop spending "on the knock" to use an old fashioned phrase then we can eventually force prices down anyway - and inflation is something manufactured by banks and businesses globally in THEIR best interests not ours: example: supermarkets publishing HUGE growth in revenue - and then putting up their prices!

Maybe crashing the economy is the only way the British public (or for that matter any public) can ever get a chance to start it from fresh with things being done for the good of the many - and not just the fat cats!

172

going2die_rich wrote: »

B.

Any fall would harm the economy. You also need some growth in order for owning your own home to have some value in it, as if it was just stable what would be the point, you might as well invest else where. Stable also tends to mean your below inflation in real terms.

You make a good point - if house pricing was stable we may as well invest elsewhere ... absolutely right. We could invest in industry, we could become a manufacturing nation, we could free ourselves from being held to ransom by other countries (e.g.China) when we lose all of our industry, we could enable all to live in and take pride in their home (different to a house!), and we could make many people much happier and build social cohesion and community values...

lets keep up the good ideas...:rolleyes:

moggylover

Prickles wrote: »

Do not need a fall at present as I have to sell a house to pay off ridiculous Inheritance Tax as didn't have time to get married when longterm partner got ill and died.

Was house solely owned by long term partner then? Otherwise, with IT level at £312,000 per person - your own half is taken out of the equation and you only pay IT on the "inherited" half. Price fall will not make much difference to how you end up - as everyone else's house is going to fall in price as well - and the house you buy will be cheaper as well + you will pay less IT. Win, win, situation.

t_i_g_e_rr

Has anyone here actually managed to move house in the last two months? There are 'For Sale' boards everywhere, but houses just aren’t selling. That can't be good if you want/need to move. I wish a market fall would just get on with it, and then we can get back to normal. Because the market has risen so quickly, if it fell by 30% how many people would actually be in negative equity?

House price rises don't make most people rich, it just means everyone can buy less for their money, so a drop would be good for many people, as long as it didn't have too many effects on the wider economy (would it?). Actually, I have aspirations to buy Buckingham Palace, and while terrace houses cost much more than 1p I just can't afford the jump!

sdooley

Prickles wrote: »

Do not need a fall at present as I have to sell a house to pay off ridiculous Inheritance Tax as didn't have time to get married when longterm partner got ill and died.

You know if you sell the property and end up getting less than the probate value you can get a proportionate reduction in your inheritance tax bill?

And that if you keep the property you have the option to pay off the inheritance tax over 10 annual installments?

Tozer

Dorrie wrote: »

Would also prefer a big crash - I have three teenagers, what hope do they have at the moment of getting on the housing ladder? Not like there are loads of council houses/housing association places standing empty waiting for them. Where are they going to live? Even a one-bedroomed flat in my town costs over £100,000.

Thats a bit knee jerk. Crashes in any sort of market are not good things and will have an enormous fall out.

bakkah

A crash wont be great for the economy but when you build an economy on debt what do you expect. The price rises of recent years were always a ticking time bomb/bubble, the sooner it passes the easier it will be on the economy, the longer its left the worse the fall out will be.

I would say whats coming is more of a return to normal than a crash so everyone will benefit, a future where no one bothers working hard because there is no hope of ever owning a house/having a family is not one I would like to be part of.

Living inside a bubble.