Ian Worthington

Agree with almost everything you've written here. Labour or Tory, I expect to see the shit hit the fan early in their term. What I'm concerned about is the form that shit will take. If it's going to be recovery by rampant inflation then we won't see significant falls in the price tags of property, just its adjusted value, which will wipe out my savings and my income isn't going to rise to adjust for it. How does the property futures market work? i

I'm not so sure about this. Granted there are some nice parts, but if you look around there are an awful lot of scrubby (ex-LA?) areas were you wouldn't be in a rush to live. Just south of the tracks seems to be one of them. Unfortunately my wife rather likes Chichester and, as she's partial sighted, easy pedestrian access is important to her. (We lived in Chandlers Ford for a bit and it was a disaster). I'm pessimistic about getting any significant price falls now. I'm thinking of buying a cheap flat there early next year as a hedge -- my job means I'm unlikely to be able to get a mortgage -- and carry on saving for a couple more years for something decent. i

Just had to explain that to the wife. Consumer geniuses those guys are, they sell fancy replacement plates in all sorts of colors and designs. More likely it was a custom job they were attached to. i

I want this to be true but, wishful thinking apart, is there any evidence to support it? i

If you could live anywhere, where would you buy right now? I work from home -- I only need access to high speed internet, easy access to local shops for the basics, and a better selection of shops within a sensible driving distance. I'm currently paying 500pm rental for a 2 bed waiting for the crash to come, but its getting rather like waiting for Godot. I'm trapped in this country for the next 4 years because of my wife's visa situation otherwise we'd be leaving. Might there be *somewhere* in this country that fulfils the basics above and doesn't cost too much to buy a decent place. Maybe that hasn't had its price hyped up too much so it won't collapse too much if Godot does turn up? Any suggestions? ian ...

King Charles .v. President Blair? Pick your poison. i

Fiddling whilst Rome gets ready to burn. i

Thanks moosetea. Intertesting you gave the area of the houses. Nobody else seems to do that in this country and its an important piece of information! Thanks again i

Moose -- May I ask where this is? I'm guessing its somewhere around the Worcester area you say you're currently living in, which is where I've just started looking -- as I work from home I can live anywhere I can get broadband. Fel free to PM your reply if you prefer: (In fact I tried to PM you but was told I'm not permitted to use the PM facility. Any idea what gives?) ian ...

How sure are you about that? The US Govt have historically devalued the dollar as a way of reducing foreign debt, of which they now have a ton(ne). The Economist had a good graph of the "US Peso" last year. I have a lot of cash in usd too, which I'm reluctant to pull out right now but wondering if I might regret later not doing do. i

Aye. I was saying just this weekend I had been forced to sell at just the right time i

Leeda -- Two things I think you need to consider in addition: 1. What if IRs rise? 2. What happens if house prices drop? I'm in the same boat as you but luckily renting a BTL from a friend. I'm not interesting in buying anything right now unless I can see a loss of capital value of say 20% as being cheaper than the rent over say 2 years. 20% and 2 years are numbers just pulled out of a hat: you need to decide your own tolerance to potential pains. We live in interesting times. i

Unfortunatly there's so much trolling on this site that any posting not fulling in keeping with the opinions of the natives is viewed with great suspicion. Its a great site in many ways but maybe not that welcoming of newbies as it could be. I almost never post for the same reason. i

Chavez is the new Castro: one of the few S.A leaders with sufficient cajones to stand up to the US, and the money to so do. Naturally the current US administration takes a pretty dim view of this. Although I don't anticipate it any time soon, I would not be surprised to see a US-lead invasion, or read that Chavez has died in some freak accident. His relationship with neighboring Colombia (one of the few SA countries remaining pro-US) is interesting: whilst there's a huge amount of aggressive retoric flying back and forth, the two countries have just started work on a very interesting pipeline project. This is definitely one to watch. i

Anyone know, or got a link to a site that has, the original offer price when BAA was privatised? i