Off-Topic...but you heard it here first!

Discussion topic from some months ago with a few of you..think HH, Studioman etc... & not gloating, not the harbinger of doom, but if you're resting on anything speculative then get rid now! Sure, one day it'll all go back up again but this time it could take quite a few years. Would hate to see anyone on here get burned. Stock market also has some way to fall yet according to my trader mate......

http://www.home.co.uk/company/press/API_Sep07.htm

http://www.moneyweek.com/file/34865/uk-house-prices-start-to -fall.html

In my opinion we would all be better off if house prices fell to what they were about 8 years ago .

Ok i bought my place for 35 grand 10 years ago and its now worth 200 grand , but that makes me a prisoner in it because to move one step up the ladder means another 100 k on my mortgage .

if prices were more like 50 grand for the same place i couuld and would afford another 20 grand on my mortgage and move to the house i want .

Unless we  sell up a go abroad where property is chaep we will neber gain from any money we may have made from the housing prices inflating so much .
and what the hell are my kids going to do , wait for me to die before they own a house , thats about the only option left here in the west if they want to stay here .

Baxter wrote: We rent. We both work, have a youth, another on the way and can't afford shit!

Exactly my point if prices were still sensible you maybe could buy somewhere , its a tough situation to be in

it is rediculous at the mo...

i live in a cheap part of the country and me and the missus bought our first house last year, first time buyers and it was well over 100 grand... gulp... and at the time we pretty much decided to buy what we wanted from a house rather than buy a first house on the assumption that we wouldn't be able to afford to 'move up' in the near future.

My guess is a minimum 15% re-alignment downwards over the next year which in real terms is 21% (with interest rates at 6%); and this has to happen because we have been living in a ludicrous bubble. Unless wages increased by 12% overnight this bubble is totally unsustainable.

Today Rightmove's figure's for August suggest that the average house price in England has fallen over £6k in just one month!! So perhaps my prediction above is too conseravtive and there is a huge crash around the corner. Who knows?

I admire hard-working folks struggling to do up a place and make a few quid; nothing wrong with that...but what pi**es me off is people who suddenly jack in their jobs after watching yet another programme on property, thinking it's easy to make money by instantly becoming Mr Property Developer. Well in a rising market it's been easy but in my area those days are over and to be honest I am pleased.....

I personally, wouldn't worry to much about what the housing market will or wont do in the next couple of years !.

Yes, it true that over an 8 to 10 year period from 96 ish to 05 ish, house prices have rocketed out of control. (I bought 2 houses for 36 k in 99 and sold them in 01 for over 140 each ! ).

These days will NEVER be seen again !!.

The 2 main problems with the high cost of housing that I see are;

The near impossible task of getting on the housing ladder to start with,

And people " remortgaging " of all of their equity during the rise in values.

We seem to be living in a very " crude " economic environment where the powers that be try to dictate how much money we spend,( inflation ), by using the interest rates.

This reflects the sad truth that, in today's world, everyone seems to be in debt !. ( big mortgages ).

If you are able to resist the temptation of cheap money against your house then you should have little to fear if the housing market goes "bang".

No one can argue that house prices are at an unsustainable level, and I, for one, would welcome a 35 % drop across the board !.  

In my part of Cambridge-shire there is a new word being used in many of the details of houses going the market,  " REDUCED "!!.

This is only my opinion. What do I know !!.

104T28 wrote: If you are worried about all this then probably best to not read this! I think it's abit extreme but then lots of people have been very silly and very greedy recently........ http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/columnists/article.html?in _article_id=424293&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=2046

Seems this is a bit more scare mongering (the report) at what rate did Northern Rock get its emergency loan? Hmmmm.

Definately gone from being a bit of 'insider' talk and pub chatter to mainstream news. My next-but-one neighbour's just dropped house by £30k and still no interest so guess if you haven't sold yet it's probably too late, for a while anyway!