I'm 52, lost my house in a divorce and still waiting to get back into the market.
In the last housing crash you were about 9 by my calculations.
I owned a property then which halved in value. I was unwilling to sell at a loss and simply rented it out for
a number of years until it regained its value. I then sold it too early, making a huge mistake.
I'm not intending to be patronising to younger people here, I just think it may be interesting to get a view from
someone who has actually been through it all before. Be nice if we could learn from history, although this often
seems pretty unlikely.
The main lesson for me has been that asset inflation always goes much higher than you expect, and conversely
the downside is always much, much worse than people expect. The same irrationality tends to affect the gloom
side, as much as the exuberant side of things.
At the low point of the last housing crash you would find people who would not touch property investment
with a barge pole. These same people would likely have been telling you that "dont be silly, property prices
never fall" some time previously.
The signs are certainly staring us all in the face. Maybe this one will be as bad as the 80's, maybe worse.
Look at the fate of Japan's property bubble.
If it is a crash, then it will probably go further and deeper than people expect. Bide your time and buy at the
bottom.
