House prices doom and gloom

[Cyclone 10]

Whilst listening to a financial analyst on the radio predicting that house values will fall by as much as a third the following occured to me.

 

If my house was worth £300,000 last year and is now only worth £200,000 the £600,000 property that I couldn't afford last year should now value at £400,000 thus saving me £100,000.

 

IMO the problem is that many people constantly re-mortgaged when their deals came to an end and borrowed more every time their property increased in value to continue living beyond their means. They now find themselves slipping into negative equity with the almost certain prospect of huge mortgage repayment increases when their current deals come to an end.

 

So folk who didn't continually borrow more and more money against their property can now probably afford their dream home. However those who treated their homes as a piggy bank can now reflect on their past life styles at their leisure.

 

A fall in housing prices is good for everyone except those that bought recently and those that are paid by commission. Pretty obvious really.

[firecracker 10]

This time last year, they were telling us that house prices would have fallen by 20% by now. It seems that the fall has turned out to be little over 3%. And it is the press and media has an obsession with spreading anything that can be construed as 'bad news' to make things look worse than what they are, whilst at the same time whitewashing over Tory shenanigans in their desire to see Labour buried at the next General Election. Why else do they spread these stories if it isn't to divert attention away from the torrent of Tory sleaze, which in any other era, would have engulfed the Tory leadership. This torrent has been raging faster than what it ever did under Major. Around 10 of their MP's facing allegations, two Euro MPs and two of Boris Johnson's team so far over the last few months

[StarSparkle 10]

The evidence of my experience is that people are out there wanting to buy houses as homes not as investments.The bottom has fallen out of the buy to let market for various reasons. A lack of demand from investors for terraced houses/flats will just see prices fall to realistic levels which will encourage first time buyers which in turn will result in a buoyant market.

You never know StarSparkle ,you may yet be able to afford a "decent" house in L##ds.We can all try to reach for the stars !

 

It's a bit late in the day now though - we wanted to be living in Leeds in the early 2000s - those ******* investors put an end to those plans very nicely for us

 

I hope all buy-to-let buyers get shafted in the same way they shafted people who were just trying to buy a HOME to live in

 

StarSparkle

[shanes teeth 10]

Look on the bright side-you avoided L##ds and had 7ish wonderful years in Walkley instead ! - all thanks to those buy to leters

[mr_busdriver 10]

To me....

 

If there is a crash, most people win. I have been one of the people who have benefitted by the increase in prices as I bought in 1999 just before things went mad.

 

I do think things need to come down to a more sensible level, so a fall in prices will be a good thing

 

I do though wonder how many of the next generation will ever be able to own a home, or even a one bedroomed flat

[Cyclone 10]

This time last year, they were telling us that house prices would have fallen by 20% by now. It seems that the fall has turned out to be little over 3%. And it is the press and media has an obsession with spreading anything that can be construed as 'bad news' to make things look worse than what they are, whilst at the same time whitewashing over Tory shenanigans in their desire to see Labour buried at the next General Election. Why else do they spread these stories if it isn't to divert attention away from the torrent of Tory sleaze, which in any other era, would have engulfed the Tory leadership. This torrent has been raging faster than what it ever did under Major. Around 10 of their MP's facing allegations, two Euro MPs and two of Boris Johnson's team so far over the last few months

 

This time last year no crash had started, the credit crunch hadn't happened and people were talking about a crash at some point in the future as it was clear it was a bubble, but not when it would burst.

The prices have fallen 3% a month for the past several (May was less than that I know), but it's quite a lot more than 3% in total so far.

[Titanic99 10]

I’ve got to be honest and say that my head and heart are in total conflict over this issue.

 

Sometimes I feel great as I know I only have a few years left on my mortgage before I’ll have the freedom to spend a bit more money, and that when I die I know my kids will inherit sums of money that I could only dream of when I was a child, then on other days I get incredibly sad when I think about the poor young people who cannot get on the property ladder without committing themselves to a virtual nil social life for the next 25 years.

 

On the general issue of doom and gloom, I do think there’s a lot of scaremongering going on within the media.

 

I do agree that basic household costs are going up by the week which is causing hardship, however there are other things which seem to be considerably cheaper than they were 10 years ago, for example we’ve just purchased a new 2-set 5 seat leather suite for half the price of what we paid for something similar 12 years ago, we’ve also just booked a holiday in September for 4 of us to go all-inclusive for 9 nights which is costing us all-in under £1000 (including a car) and I’m sure this would have cost a lot more than this 10 years ago.

 

I also look around and see Electrical goods and Cars a lot cheaper than before, somehow the media never point these areas out and instead focus on the negatives.