[Saving For a Space Ship]

Short-sighted homeowners face a nasty dose of reality

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LOTS of people are getting anxious about their debts. Or so say the chief executives at mortgage lenders who see this as a major cause of the housing market slowdown. Aghast at the amount they have spent on their credit cards, the already over-mortgaged are reluctant to embark on the purchase of a larger property with a supersized home loan. They are not disenchanted with bricks and mortar, refusing to watch TV property shows or minded to visit www.housepricecrash.co.uk, the online haunt of those convinced of an imminent collapse. They are just taking a reality check.

'www.housepricecrash.co.uk, the online haunt of those convinced of an imminent collapse' what's haunting to me is over £1 trillion of debt

[Ah-so]

Whoever wrote the article will be popping by to visit this site to see what we make of this article and I will forgive a bit of narcissm in this case. My hunch is that the hack in question has visited in the past.

I see that no sources are given. It refers to "mortgage lenders" and "lots of people" and "they". "They" always say things don't "they"?

"a mortgage into their dotage, as the Japanese do". Nonsense. They take out 30 year mortgages. The 50 year mortgage may have existed, but it was exceptional.

I couldn't agree more with the message, but it feels more like it was written buy a frustrated FTB facing a deadline and with an urgent desire to get to the pub.

[Cassandra]

Another good article in Today's Times. And HPC.co.uk gets a mention!!! If they weren't minded to visit www.housepricecrash.co.uk then they know now!!

[RichM]

We are the website the Times loves to hate, aren't we?

So, the author reckons that:

"LOTS of people are getting anxious about their debts"

People are "Aghast at the amount they have spent on their credit cards"

"reluctant to embark on the purchase of a larger property with a supersized home loan"

people are "over-indebted", "whose blunders included short-termism"

"A homebuyer with a £150,000 loan who took out a two-year 3.40 per cent in 2003 must now be content with a rate of 4.95 per cent. The extra cost is £1,500 a year"

"short-termism could have nasty long-term consequences"

"Hundreds of thousands of people are not putting aside money to repay their interest-only mortgage at its term, hoping that something will turn up to clear the debt"

"not investing in pensions"

"The choice will be to sell the home to repay the loan and live in penury, or continue with a mortgage into their dotage, as the Japanese do"

But the author still believes that:

"They are not disenchanted with bricks and mortar"!

Hmm, even the bulls on this site are now selling their properties, there are no FTbers propping up the housing market, and numbers of transactions as well as prices are falling - if they're not disenchanted with property now they will be soon!

Welcome to anyone who found this site after reading today's Times!

[RRP]

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We are the website the Times loves to hate, aren't we?

Wonder what has happened to Ann Spackperson ?

[RichM]

RRP, on Mar 26 2005, 11:33 AM, said:

Wonder what has happened to Ann Spackperson ?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

STR? Living it up in South France?

[zzg113]

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Wonder what has happened to Ann Spackperson ?

She was promoted to Managing Editor of The Times for her services to property ramping:

http://www.timesonli...-598482,00.html

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If you are interested, please write with a CV to the Managing Editor, Anne Spackman, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT.

[Killer Bunny]

Ah-so, on Mar 26 2005, 12:37 AM, said:

Whoever wrote the article will be popping by to visit this site to see what we make of this article and I will forgive a bit of narcissm in this case. My hunch is that the hack in question has visited in the past.

I see that no sources are given. It refers to "mortgage lenders" and "lots of people" and "they". "They" always say things don't "they"?

"a mortgage into their dotage, as the Japanese do". Nonsense. They take out 30 year mortgages. The 50 year mortgage may have existed, but it was exceptional.

I couldn't agree more with the message, but it feels more like it was written buy a frustrated FTB facing a deadline and with an urgent desire to get to the pub.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I understand your comments but I'm afraid your presumtptions are totally off base. She is a serious PF journalist and one of the most powerful in the UK.

[rentboy]

Short-sighted homeowners face a nasty dose of reality

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Aghast at the amount they have spent on their credit cards, the already over-mortgaged are reluctant to embark on the purchase of a larger property with a supersized home loan. They are not disenchanted with bricks and mortar, refusing to watch TV property shows or minded to visit www.housepricecrash.co.uk, the online haunt of those convinced of an imminent collapse. They are just taking a reality check.

A bit of free publicity for the site, wonder if it will generate some extra traffic?



edited to add: sorry, didn't see it had been already posted!

[tinker]

Just did a Google search for hpc.co.uk... this came up at no. 1. From 2005. FP there...

A pity the owners don't have that domain name as a redirect, it might be useful in referring people to the site hpc to the people might be less scary than housepricecrash and given the variety of topic and general economic insight.