prices aint budging

pickles110564

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

Hi pickles110564

I'm not disputing your "green shoots" but can I ask what area you're living in?

I may be an optimist but this country still has close to full employment and so we shouldn't be in too much of panic if house prices drop from the ludicrous prices of last year and the market has stalled.

Fuel and food prices are a worry. But a recession is largely a pyschological state. If people still have jobs we can ride the storm. Some of our European neighbours like France have had 10% unemployment for the last few years. Well before the "credit crunch".

The bad debt our banks bought from our US neighbours was a con. In the US if you can no longer pay your mortgage you can hand back the keys and walk away debt free. No negative equity! No one chasing you to recover debt despite selling your house under your feet at a below market value as happened in our last recession.

So we are, on the whole, ok despite our banks gorging themselves on our US cousins' bad deals.

Hold tight, it may be a rollercoaster but if we all keep our heads things could be ok.

Suffolk by the sea.

tradetime

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

Hi pickles110564

I may be an optimist but this country still has close to full employment and so we shouldn't be in too much of panic if house prices drop from the ludicrous prices of last year and the market has stalled.

Yes indeed we do have high employment but as the falling property market helps drag us into recession that will change, it's kind of what recessions do.

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

Fuel and food prices are a worry.

I'd say big time, unless we can reign in speculation on these markets.

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

But a recession is largely a pyschological state. If people still have jobs we can ride the storm.

Not really sure I understand that statement, if we enter a recession a lot of people will lose jobs, no good shutting your eyes and saying to yourself over and over "It's in my mind, we're not in a recession." When you open them you'll likely have no job, and hello, you're in a recession, amongst other things, that's one of the symptoms of a recession, widespread job losses.

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

The bad debt our banks bought from our US neighbours was a con. In the US if you can no longer pay your mortgage you can hand back the keys and walk away debt free. No negative equity! No one chasing you to recover debt despite selling your house under your feet at a below market value as happened in our last recession.

No arguements there, but I'm puzzled as to how you then make the jump to pronounce......

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

So we are, on the whole, ok despite our banks gorging themselves on our US cousins' bad deals.

Personally, and imho of course, I'd say we are very far from ok, as a nation we have racked up considerable debt through the good times, instead of positioning ourselves for the bad times about to come. As individuals we have record household debt which has largely been grown on a period of low inflation and low interest rates, that party is ending, inflation is accelerating to the upside and interest rates will have to follow. I wonder how servicable that debt burden will be in the face of substantially higher rates.

MrsCJH99 wrote: »

Hold tight, it may be a rollercoaster but if we all keep our heads things could be ok.

Personally, I think we could very well get our heads handed to us on a plate.

Generali

pickles110564 wrote: »

Suffolk by the sea.

I hope your investments don't end up like Dunwich!

It's a lovely part of the world, a good place to live. I couldn't stand the commute to London for my work though.

fc123

Generali wrote: »

I hope your investments don't end up like Dunwich!

It's a lovely part of the world, a good place to live. I couldn't stand the commute to London for my work though.

But if you raised pigs for a living, would be quite convenient?

geoffky

The thing people forget is that it just takes one seller to sell at 20% to 30% in any road in any town and that is it you have the new price for the houses in that road ...this was how the liar loans messed the market on the way up...

fc123

geoffky wrote: »

The thing people forget is that it just takes one seller to sell at 20% to 30% in any road in any town and that is it you have the new price for the houses in that road ...this was how the liar loans messed the market on the way up...

That will be us in October 2008...selling at the price someone will pay....well not silly price but YKWIM....

Zelie

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The Netherlands.

Seriously?

Generali

fc123 wrote: »

But if you raised pigs for a living, would be quite convenient?

Not really my thing. I like a bacon sandwich as much as the next man but I don't think that livestock raising is my thing. I kill houseplants so it wouldn't be fair to the piggies to raise them.

dopester

Generali wrote: »

Not really my thing. I like a bacon sandwich as much as the next man but I don't think that livestock raising is my thing. I kill houseplants so it wouldn't be fair to the piggies to raise them.

Pigs require quite a lot of water in their diet don't they? Also they are pretty useless animals. Can't be shorn, can't be milked, can't pull a plough.

Don't mean to offend any religious people, but that's why the elders of both desert people (Muslim and Jewish) made them taboo imo - using an alternative but simple religious taboo to get the message to their people. The valuable and limited water available in those desert regions, sustaining and growing population.. much needed for improving society and to give defence in numbers against from foreigners - instead of for pigs. Also I guess pork meat is more likely to spoil or become diseased in storage in hotter desert countries. In all other countries where water is plentiful, there is no real religious taboo on pork.

tradetime

dopester wrote: »

Pigs require quite a lot of water in their diet don't they? Also they are pretty useless animals. Can't be shorn, can't be milked, can't pull a plough.

Don't mean to offend any religious people, but that's why the elders of both desert people (Muslim and Jewish) made them taboo imo - using an alternative but simple religious taboo to get the message to their people. The valuable and limited water available in those desert regions, sustaining and growing population.. much needed for improving society and to give defence in numbers against from foreigners - instead of for pigs. Also I guess pork meat is more likely to spoil or become diseased in storage in hotter desert countries. In all other countries where water is plentiful, there is no real religious taboo on pork.

In Jewish and Islamic religions the pig is considered an unclean animal as laid out in the old testament the bible. (but that's getting way off topic)