Friday, Oct 20, 2006
Mortgage Misery
ITV1: Tonight with Trevor McDonald
OK, not really a news story, but housepricecrash.co.uk should get a mention in tonight's show. Originally due to be broadcast on Monday 16th, but was pulled at the last minute.
"Interest rates look set to rise next month and figures show that hundreds of thousands of people are failing to keep up with their mortgage payments and risk losing their homes. Fiona Foster reports on whether the public is paying too big a price to get on the property ladder - is it time to give up the national home owning obsession? "
Posted by little professor @ 10:23 AM (146 views) Add Comment
15 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. Surfgatinho said...
This could be the kind of positive spin that is needed to wake people up. This program has massive viewing figures and might at least make a significant number of potential buyers think maybe we should wait and see what happens. Of course that all depends on the verdict of the program
2. bidin'matime said...
Saw it and enjoyed it immensely. Stand by for more of this kind of thing.
3. Such_short_memories said...
The media are on the turn. Reality is kicking in. Well done Trevor for sticking your neck out. Lets hope this is only the beginning of more exposure of this sorry mess.
The young people feature on the programme perfectly illustrate the numpties that the policy of, 'Education, Education, Education', has created. Yeah, well done New Labour, nice one.
To an extent, you can't blame them for holding their opinions, as they have been immersed in the flawed logic of believing that, 'house prices always go up', 'renting is dead money', etc etc etc, for most of their 'thinking' lives. Its just such a shame that these falsehoods are taken at face value by so many people in society, without any sort of question or critique. Why, therefore, should you need an Economics degree so as not to get sucked into this wicked trap.
Hey-ho, this is the just the nature of markets being evidenced I suppose.
4. Bobsta said...
Here here! A long overdue programme...
5. japanese uncle said...
"Tonight asks if our obsession with home-ownership is healthy"
What the heck are they speaking about after all these 8 years of frenzy? They could have warned like this much earlier, and they did not.
Why? Boost the bubble to the very limit, and let it go off, spectacularly, is the strategy of their sponsors behind the scene. I envisage a hellstorm of reposessions after reposessions during the coming two-three years. And even after the repo they will still remain in debt. Banks can and will exploit those poor idiots literally to the last drop. Thus the completion of the 21 century slavery under the tyranny of those financial tycoons.
6. talking rot said...
I didn't see the broadcast but I meant to. Sadly I had to work. Can some one please summarise it for me. Thanks.
7. Nohpc said...
This is vested interest spin. Trevor Macdonald has a massive buy to let portfolio and he has just sold the whole lot off at the peak of the market. He now wants to help a crash along its way with this kind of piece so he can rebuy his portfolio at half the price! I have a close friends that brings him his tea so this is reliable information!
8. little professor said...
Talking Rot -
There's a good discussion about it inside the forums. Basically they had interviews with clueless young people who had bought recently. There was one woman who was full of the usual "house prices can only go up; rent is dead money; I need to get on the 'mortgage ladder' before it is too late" bullsh!t. She had taken out a mortgage on half the property; the mortgage company still owned the other half and she had to pay rent to them on top of the mortgage! Her kind mortgage adviser had written down her incomings and outgoing but the dimwit girl hadn't realised that moving out of your parents' and owning your own home also means you have to pay your own bills and living expenses. Despite two jobs she was sinking further and further into the red.
The other mugs were two young female friends who had decided to buy in London together. They borrowed £250,000 - a staggering five times their joint income. And one of them was on a probationary job, with no guarantee of an income after 6 months. When the presenter asked what they would do if there was a house price crash, one of them replied "Yeah, but when was the last time prices went down?"
9. little professor said...
Here are two clips from the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDbbDSJUs7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG8tkmShBtI
10. sirgoogle said...
Fab. Recommened viewing.
So sad. So pretty, young and thick.
11. kpjcomp said...
"Yeah, but when was the last time prices went down?"
Erm, the last time there was a bubble.
It's mad, even when there's an expert there telling them, they still went ahead with it.
Now we know why the bubble is here, so many people have had there some sort of brainwashing.
Nice this programme was right in the middle of a double cori, peak time viewing.. :)
Now to reverse the brainwashing into some sort of common sense, but looking at the dazed look on those 2 girls faces, it might be tricky..
12. d'oh said...
little professor
Isn't everyone, except those in the public service, on probationary jobs these days?
Anyhow, was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. So, um, what happens when the market crashes and one of the fab duo wants to get married, falls out with the other, etc. etc.? I know someone who was in the same situation during the last crash i.e. friends buying together and then enjoying negative equity. He lost a lot of money when his housemate upped sticks. Mind you, he is a property lawyer, and rebought at the bottom of the market, so don't have too much sympathy for him.
What concerns me about this was how unthinking and credulous the three young women were. What has happened to our educations system and the general wisdom being passed down from parent to child? It was also quite clear that there was a lot of fear driving their decisions.
The other people on the show were a mixed bunch. One a mother who was on an interest free mortgage because otherwise she would have to downsize (erm, living above your means luv). Didn't see the entire house, but it look rather nice from the fittings. The family with the husband who drove a forklift just broke my heart. Seems like they were killing themselves to pay the mortgage...and given what some people earn these days, that someone can be paid (after tax) £900 per month for a full time job, is a disgrace.
Having said that, I was a 30 something junior fellow at one of the richer Oxford colleges only a few years ago, and my take home pay was about £960 per month too. What a fool I was wasting my 20s and part of my 30s teaching and researching for pennies. Would have had more fun driving a forklift.
13. sirgoogle said...
D'oh
Agree I felt very sorry for the couple with the kids living in what should have been a house well within their means. These are the true innocent victims - not the blond bimbos with zero brains who walked in voluntarily. These people have a family and full time jobs they really should be able to afford to put a roof over their head without working 24/7.
14. sirgoogle said...
Jason on the Forum uploaded the whole progrramme to :
http://www.filefactory.com/file/78a98c/
Then click on at the bottom of the page:
"Download for free with FileFactory Basic"
Then click on at the bottom of the page:
"Click here to begin your download"
15. inbreda said...
trevor asked for people to contact him if they had a story (had been given bad advice, debt problems etc etc)
Why doesn't someone contact him about the growing evidence that the government are fiddling the inflatyion figures and the effect htis has on prudent savers.
Would make a nice foolow up piece.