Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
Housing Market Meltdown - their words, not mine
Daily Mail: House sales drop by half in a year as repossessions soar
The number of homes sold has halved in a year, according to official figures issued yesterday. Coming alongside evidence of the soaring number of repossessions, the news lays bare the extent of the meltdown in the housing market. In June last year, 140,000 homes were sold for £40,000 or more. This was before the Northern Rock debacle began and the words 'credit crunch' were bandied about. Twelve months later, figures from HM Revenue and Customs show that just 77,000 homes were sold in June, the lowest number since records began in 2005.
Posted by uncle chris @ 08:47 AM (1449 views) Add Comment
41 Comments
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1. Landedgentry said...
"Meltdown", "Credit Crunch" and "Subprime" are the most delicious words I've ever heard.
2. hpwatcher said...
Good.
3. gardeniadotnet said...
Not good.
Do you think this meltdown is going to conveniently stop at a level you're comfortable with?
4. Still-waiting said...
Since records began in 2005. That must be the shortest length of records on record since my records began in 2004.
5. waitingfor hpc said...
no i hope it goes lower -- then it is very very good. These greedy people deserve all they get!
6. gardeniadotnet said...
>These greedy people deserve all they get!
And what about the rest of us? Very few will come out of this unscathed.
When the trust has gone in a marriage, the marriage is doomed.
The trust has gone in the financial markets - the global economy is doomed.
7. rickyb said...
Energy is the resource that ultimately drives the global economy IMHO. If you believe that sources of available energy are becoming scarce, then the global economy will inevitably decline. If the west can keep control of the energy resources we need to sustain our economies, then this will just be another boom/bust cycle that we have to ride out.
8. jack c said...
gardeniadotnet is (IMO) correct the collapse of the uk residential property market will have a huge impact on the wider UK economy - not very pleasant if we all lose our jobs or our businesses go bust.
As regards the article - this will come as a shock to regular viewers of "add £10k to the value of your house" - a few coats of magnolia, a fresh vase of flowers and 3 pieces of reproduction Jack Vettriano on the wall always adds full value in each and every programme.
9. hpwatcher said...
Do you think this meltdown is going to conveniently stop at a level you're comfortable with?
I have never expected anything other than a full blown recession, and losing my job. It's a price I am more than happy to pay to see the end of this absolute spending madness.
And what about the rest of us? Very few will come out of this unscathed.
Well, you probably should not be on this site, as it's called House Price Crash. If I were you, I should try one of the property support websites, of which there are quite a number.
10. gardeniadotnet said...
>Energy is the resource that ultimately drives the global economy IMHO.
MONEY is the resource that ultimately drives the global economy.
11. hpwatcher said...
a few coats of magnolia, a fresh vase of flowers and 3 pieces of reproduction Jack Vettriano on the wall always adds full value in each and every programme.
Oh, you forgot the laminate floor!
12. rickyb said...
gardeniadotnet
Try making a tonne of steel with no energy.
13. gardeniadotnet said...
>Well, you probably should not be on this site, as it's called House Price Crash. If I were you, I should try one of the property support websites, of which there are quite a number.
That comment says more about you than it does about me.
14. gardeniadotnet said...
>Try making a tonne of steel with no energy.
Try obtaining energy without money.
15. debtfree said...
@8. gardeniadotnet
Surely, money is energy. ?
16. waitingfor hpc said...
We need this recession / depression to remove the mad excess of the last 10 years. I was in a meeting at one of the UK Ford plants yesterday and the guy was telling me he wants to buy his THIRD property in France but can not get a mortage??? People will not learn except the hard way.
17. jack c said...
@9. hpwatcher said..."a few coats of magnolia, a fresh vase of flowers and 3 pieces of reproduction Jack Vettriano on the wall always adds full value in each and every programme" - Oh, you forgot the laminate floor!
Laminate floor is out - they cant get anymore since floors to go entered administration
18. gardeniadotnet said...
>Surely, money is energy. ?
Too esoteric for me, I'm afraid.
I'll leave that one for others to discuss.
19. renting2 said...
The next bubble is beginning to take shape. It is in the debt collection and advisory services sector. More debt collection agencies will spring up in what is essentially an unregulated 'industry'. On the other side many firms are springing up promising to wipe out your debt problems (for a fee). These companies will grow fast and attract investment, a lot of investment. They may well be the same people who fed the current bubble on the way up.
20. Eyes_wide_open said...
"gardeniadotnet is (IMO) correct the collapse of the uk residential property market will have a huge impact on the wider UK economy - not very pleasant if we all lose our jobs or our businesses go bust."
Surely an economy that needs an ever-rising residentail property market is doomed, that kind of economy is an accident waiting to happen, as it is now proving.
21. debtfree said...
12. gardeniadotnet said...Try obtaining energy without money.
Energy is a universal law, whereas Money is a form of energy. You can't have money before energy.
22. george monsoon said...
I have to agree with hpwatcher on this one. Yes we are in for hard times, but I don't have a mortgage to manage so I won't be as bad off as others who have to finance an overpriced millstone.
Good, let the economy sink, I will shovel sh*t if I have to, but in the long run the economy will have to return to strict, good old fasioned common sense when it comes to playing with money. I say bring it on and hopefully in a decade or so, our children will be able to buy a decent home for 3x salery !!!!!!!
23. Jackas said...
I agree with hpwatcher. I say bring it on.
It is a dose of tough love that people don't realise they need.
I'd rather have a recession than devaluation of sterling and destabilisation of the system.
24. voiceofreason said...
I work for a global engineering company.
The lower the pund gets, the cheaper the labour of the UK gets, the cheaper the cost of living in the UK gets, the BETTER IT IS FOR MY JOB PROSPECTS AND EARNING POTENTIAL.
QED.
We can then have a healthy export led economy again instead of one based on selling piles of bricks to one another, with Forest Gump style economics....
25. mark said...
Repossession can have devastating consequences on families who lose their homes.
It can lead to depression, divorce and an agonising disruption to children's lives who often have to move schools and lose touch with friends.
****WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO CANNOT AFFORD A HOUSE?***** BECAUSE OF THE BOOM
26. nooneo said...
voiceofreason @ 20
"We can then have a healthy export led economy again instead of one based on selling piles of bricks to one another, with Forest Gump style economics...."
But surely tha would mean our politicians would have to work for a living, providing help to our export businesses (you know the ones that ACTUALLY make things) instead of riding the property booms and taxing the hell out of everything so they can pay for our serviced based welfare system.
Interesting concept voiceofreason an economy that makes things! - It'll never work here theres just too much office space to fill!
27. mark said...
TO ALL ESTATE AGENTS:-
PRICES CANNOT GO UP FOREVER..... THEY HAVE TO COME DOWN TOO.
If you want to sell property advise your clients to DROP PRICES, simple really, as when times were booming you happily advised clients to push up prices so you could get more money from your high commissions....PURE GREED
28. nopensionnohouse said...
> Try obtaining energy without money.
Try getting an egg without a chicken.
29. Orcusmaximus said...
Would you rather be in work and have a lifetime of wage slavery ahead of you to pay off a crippling mortgage?
Or would you rather be out of work (or be in low paid work) for a couple of years, and then get a decent job and a cheap mortgage?
Bring on the recession!
30. rickyb said...
Most animals and plants (and humans for most of our evolutionary history) seem to manage quite well without a money based economy, surviving solely on the energy they obtain directly or indirectly from the sun. So I would say it's not even a chicken and egg situation.
31. martin said...
"Most animals and plants (and humans for most of our evolutionary history) seem to manage quite well without a money based economy"
Tell that to the Bulls
32. Fingerbob69 said...
to #23 Mark... Yeah that's right blame the agents. That ignores the painful truth that over the last 10 years if ever a vendor got in 2/3 agents to value a property, the vendor would inevitably ways go with the agent who valued the property the highest.... greedy greedy vendor who rarely gets blamed on here.
Furthermore, the way agents make a profit is not on selling 1/2 over-priced houses in a week but from selling 4/5 at their proper market value. I'd much rather sell 10 two bed terraces at £80,000 (which is still more than x3 average income round here in Ipswich) in a month as opposed to 2/3 at £135,000. Stands to reason.
And yes, i'm an estate agent.
33. hpwatcher said...
That comment says more about you than it does about me.
It's clear that you aren't fitting in, so I'm just trying to be helpful.
34. gardeniadotnet said...
>so I'm just trying to be helpful.
Thank you.
35. Advokat said...
waitingfor hpc said...
I was in a meeting at one of the UK Ford plants yesterday and the guy was telling me he wants to buy his THIRD property in France but can not get a mortage??? People will not learn except the hard way.
That is why he works at FORD ! or one could also argue he attends at FORD each working day
36. unplugged said...
Guys don't panic. You're all wrong... we can just think ourselves rich! Simple
http://www.gettingrichscience.com/chapter16.htm
37. gardeniadotnet said...
Dear RAY,
Several weeks ago, on national television, Congressman Ron Paul told Fed Chief Bernanke that a staggering 4.3 TRILLION new, unbacked, paper dollars have been printed in the last two years.
Neither Bernanke nor anyone else in the House hearing room dared to disagree. Bernanke just sat and stared.
Now, with the dollar within a penny of its all-time lows ... with that extra $4.3 trillion in new dollars still sloshing around in the economy ... and with America’s money supply (M3) still growing at the staggering rate of 16.9% per year ... the world is likely to be flooded with a new, even larger wave of greenbacks over the next twelve months. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Because every new dollar Washington creates reduces the value of every dollar you earn, spend, save and invest, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what’s next: Despite the Fed’s jawboning, and despite temporary rallies, THIS DOLLAR DISASTER HAS BARELY BEGUN!
Martin Weiss
38. gardeniadotnet said...
Where the US leads, we follow.
Hyperinflation here we come.
39. hpwatcher said...
I was in a meeting at one of the UK Ford plants yesterday and the guy was telling me he wants to buy his THIRD property in France but can not get a mortage???
The problem is that far too many people have seen property as nothing more than a cash cow. This pumped up the bubble and now it's bursting!
40. wiltshire said...
Sorry but I'm also one of the 'bring it on' crowd. People need to get some sense of reality in their lives. It's time to get back to basics and an understanding of what makes for a cohesive and co-operative society rather than the cheap-credit-driven, celebrity-obsessed, endless-scramble-for-more-useless-cr*p-orama that the UK has descended into. I'm looking forward to some collective pain and people starting to realise they need to live within their means.
41. sold out said...
bring it on,indeed it will be lot let painfull for everyone if this slump can be accellerated and sorted within the next 12months rather than dragging on for years.
The housing developers need to look around at whats happening in the real world, outside of their housing bubble and start reducing prices aggressively,stop poncing around with silly gimmicks, free cars and morgage paid for 1 st year b@ll$cks.
Tha Ea,s need to stop sitting around in the office, in the vain hope that a miracle is around the corner in the banking sector and get out in their silly little cars and start pressurising the sellers in denial to drop their prices aggressively.