cartimandua51

I think you're confusing two largely different animals "Woman" and "Mother". "Woman" you may be able to convince about the financial long-term prospects blah blah; ""Mother" is more basic: I provide sex and hot meals; you provide secure long-term roof. Deal? 'Twas ever thus; just a bit obscured in the last 50 years or so. Confiteor, If you're happy where you are and can afford it (as you presumably can until 2010 at least, and have a happy wife and kids, then you've got more than many. Enjoy it while you can and review the situation in a couple of years time.

If you have to pay up in the end you can at least get the "warm glow" revenge by reporting it to the Environmental Health Officer & requesting an HHSR visit. This will cause your landlord a whole load of expensive grief, and they will make him cure the condensation and damp or slap a no-can-let notice on him.

I'm old enough to have been working during the 3-day week of the the recession of the 1970s. Extract from wikipedia (all right, not the most reliable source, but it squares with my memory): By the middle of 1973, the National Union of Mineworkers had encouraged their members to work to rule - as a result, coal stocks slowly dwindled. The global effect of the 1973 oil crisis also drove up the price of coal. The Heath government entered into negotiations with the NUM, to no avail. To reduce electricity consumption, and thus conserve coal stocks, a series of measures were announced on 13 December 1973 by Heath, including the "Three-Day Work Order", more commonly known as the Three-Day Week, which was to come into force at midnight on 31 December. Commercial consumption of electricity would be limited to three consecutive days each week.[1] Heath's objective was business continuity and survival. Rather than risk a total shutdown, working time was reduced with the intent of prolonging the life of available fuel stocks. Funny thing was, though I'm (almost ) sure I can remember working in a factory in coats and by an oil lamp to finish an audit (I was a trainee accountant at the time) it didn't feel too bad. I think it's the boiling a frog syndrome; these things don't just happen with an almighty bang, they creep up on you and you adjust. I don't see anything on the horizon to match those days.

1. Because we make more profits from rent (just) than we would get from selling up, paying off the mortgage and investing at about 6% 2. Depends what you think is going to happen to inflation - I'm old enough to remember inflation at 26%pa!

We own a BTL (OK, hiss away, but it's a 7-bed student let, so hardly infringing the rights of FTBs) in Bournemouth. The owners of the house next door, who are moving from the area,asked us in August if we were interested in buying at £320K. We did the sums and said no, didn't stack up. They put it on the market in September at £300 but no takers yet. Interestingly, their son/ son-in-law works for the EA; presumably he has given them what he considers a "realistic" price as they can't move till they sell. I watch with interest to see how much it comes down - £270K or less and we could make it pay (just).

Agreed; I see the process more as falling off an escarpment (if I've got the right geographical term - GCE Geog was a very long time ago!): a long (reasonably) steay climb, followed by a tip over the edge, and bouncing off a couple of ledges before hitting bottom. Round here (bournemouth) things are sticky rather than falling; though a lot of the new 2 bed flats (mostly major conversions of Bournemouth's large 4/5 bed detached houses) just aren't moving. Apparently Bournemouth has already passed its Government target for new houses by 2010, due to all the new flats.....

I think it's unfair simply to say "house buyers are morons"; getting caught up in bubbles is an age-old phenomenon. I'm a little hazy on my facts, but didn't that renowned dimwit Isaac Newton lose a packet in the South Sea Bubble?

Ta - expanded link now works (though I'm not sure that house prices do follow a standard Bell curve...)

Link produces 404 error: do you have a correct/ full one?

The Times is not the Daily Mail or the Sun: they assume an IQ in triple figures among their readership and don't necessarily put a "This is IRONIC" banner headline over their articles! Why on earth else would they end up with "Residential property prices are sublime, not in the least bit ridiculous. Hubris? What's that?" ? The 12% is wrong, though - a quick side trip to Nationwide's House Price Calculator gave these figures (assuming a nice round 100K) A property located in UK which was valued at £100000 in Q3 of 1989, would be worth approximately £81766 in Q3 of 1995. This is equivalent to a change of -18.23%. To which, of corse you have to add the inflation % over the 6 years - sorry I couldn't be arsed to look it up.

May be good for the individual homeowners but the impact on share prices and the economy (and hence everyone's pensions, taxes etc) would be pretty devastating. Furthermore as and when you wanted to sell there might be major difficulties with proving the mortgage had been cleared....

Started off quite vicious, ended up cuddly. Not sure where they're going to take it - it looked like a reasonably good one-off to me

A week or two ago I fell into conversation with a constituent, a middle-aged, quite ordinary working man employed in one of our nationalised industries. After a sentence or two about the weather, he suddenly said: "If I had the money to go, I wouldn't stay in this country." I made some deprecatory reply to the effect that even this government wouldn't last for ever; but he took no notice, and continued: "I have three children, all of them been through grammar school and two of them married now, with family. I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled overseas. Source: Enoch Powell's speech in Birmingham 1968 The trend of this topic is bringing this often misquoted speech rather vividly to memory (if anyone too young to remember exactly what he said wants to read it in its entirety (5 pages - pre sound-bite era!) the link is htpp://www.sterlingtimes.org/powell_speech.doc ) Plus ca change, c'est plus la meme chose It's deja vu all over again...

For an an example (admittedly small-scale) have a look at the auctions section on http://www.foxgrant.com/regionalauctions.asp and clock the phenomenal difference between the 92% sold September Auction and yesterday's disastrous results (for the vendors, anyway)

One might not have to speak it, but it doesn't half help with spelling (insofar as anything helps with English spelling) and learning almost any Western European language. Though it can also muddy the issue - learning Spanish recently I confused the hell out of the teacher by dropping into a weird mixture of French and Latin when under stress!

Up till recently, I'd have said that the US & UK were differnet. Part of Japan's problem was (& to some extent is) that loans were not allowed to go bad - banks just carried them on their Balance Sheets rather than taking the hit, so firms who deserved to go bust didn't. ( Also banks that deserved to go bust, didn't). Japan hasn't had the God-awful shakeout that hit Britain in the Thatcher years. Now, I am looking uneasily at the Northern Rock bailout, and wondering......

ad terrae? Got a feeling this should be ad terram, but it's been a long time... However just a link to something I was checking out earlier; have a look at the auctions section on www.foxgrant.com and clock the phenomenal difference between the 92% sold September Auction and yesterday's disaster!

Not sure where to post this - as a new member I can't start a new topic, but have a look at the auctions section on www.foxgrant.com and clock the phenomenal difference between the 92% sold September Auction and yesterday's disaster!

Missed it. But South Today at 6.30 had a 3 minute bit on house prices diving worst in Winchester.

Just trying to think of ANY really sexy PMs since Disraeli - no, I'm not that old! Eden and Macmillan had an elder statesman charm (now I am showing my age) but Wilson? Grocer Heath? Or the might-have beens Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague? Naah - I can understand a certain sort of man getting a frisson out of Thatcher but British politicians are pretty unshaggable as a rule.

I'm not going to - I find it interesting that no-ne else has yet posted a reply. There is a lot of downright venom on this site along with some very informed and reasonable posters. A lot of the venom is directed at BTL who have stretched themselves far more than you (or me) who are seen as having driven up prices. Two questions I would ask are 1. Are you still buying? i.e. you find anywhere where the interest/ mortgage still stacks up? 2. Would you be better of liquidating and sticking your money in the nearest deposit account at about 6% at zero risk and hassle? AS far as I can make out, for this website if (1) you are part of the problem; if (2) you would be hastening the solution.

Couple in Aldershot saved up a substantial deposit, worked hard, turned a crap house into a nice one and made a modest profit. What's not to like?

Er- yes. As a downsizer who has finally got out of London after 30-odd years I probably would consider it at something like 30% OFF its original price. As is being discussed on a different thread you do have to take into account different house types: sure lots of the newbuild 2-bedders are ridiculously overpriced and may well go through the floor; but others will hold up much better. Location, location, location - there are only a certain number of houses in (say) central Bath, or Cathedral Close in Wells or similar, and they are protected to the teeth so there won't be any more. Imbalance of people wanting to live there against restricted supply will always give them a substantial premium, so I'm expecting a much wider spread of prices with low-grade ones falling furthest fastest

From the same site, have a look at http://www.fool.co.uk/news/property-home/2...erty-peril.aspx All that glisters is not gold, indeed

I wouldn't rely to much on downsizers: (a) they have the time and leisure to be VERY picky, and don't usually have to move. ( they can only move if someone buys their house. The trouble with HPC is the massive inertia - NOTHING moves for ages, except perhaps on death. Even divorce doesn't always force sales -remember the 1989-95 period when lots of couples were stuck together because they couldn't afford to move? I agree about semis, and the nicer terraced houses in good locations.