he who dares

Not posted for a long time but i just had to respond to this thread. I am unlucky enough to live in oldump and i can confirm that prices have not risen at all in the last 2 years but by the same measure they have not really fallen either, it pretty much is a stagnant market. The only place where ASKING prices have gone up are the saddleworth area (probably the only decentish part of oldham) but prices there have been absolutley crackers for the last 5/6 years now (200k 2/3 bed semi!!!!)The thing is that i check the prices on a weekly basis in that area and the same properties sit week in week out and prices slowly come down but houses there are soooo overpriced that 10/20k is just a drop in the ocean. Also because of ludicrous hpi the villages in saddleworth are becoming devoid of families with young children and they are suffering a a result, local primary schools are struggling like mad for intake and class sizes are getting smaller and smaller. There has also been a massive amount of "apartments" built recently by the hated housebuilder wiggets who will chuck up a block of flats in someones back garden, many locals complain wiggets are ruining the character of the villages with his fake stone 2 bed shoe boxes. I can also confirm that the town is an absolute sh1thole it basically sums up how different racial groups cannot live together and coexist peacefully, there is a general atmosphere of unease in the town between the asians and whites and recently there seems to have been a massive influx of eastern europeans who don't seem to work they simply sit on their **** all day in the town center leering at the local women. Most people give the town center a wide berth with regards to shopping as no one feels comfortable there anymore and most go to manchester/huddersfield. The same goes for a night out no one with any sense will go for a drink in the town on a weekend as they know they will probaly end up in casualty at the end of the night (apparantley yorkshire street has the highest incident of assaults in the uk) The local council services are shocking and the council tax rises are outrageous for the level of service that is provided. I also cannot understand why house prices are higher here than in other local regions as rochdale/bury/ashton are quite a bit cheaper and local wages are basically sh1te, so how do people afford these prices? I am absolutley gutted that after living away from thowdam for the last ten years that the wife convinced me to return last year, it has been a year of hell as the place has gone down the pan dramatically in the last few years. When hpc truly hits oldham will be absolutley slaughtered I ADVISE ANYONE: DO NOT BUY A HOUSE HERE WHATEVER YOU DO. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

Thanks everyone for your responses/views. I know that aus has it's problems too and the grass always appears greener but i simply feel as trevor werewolf posted that i am merely existing in the uk and not actually living. The future appears to consist of rainy, grey 10/12 hour days and the evenings consisting of a diet of crap reality tv followed by a 30 minute dose of depression called eastenders (if it wasn't for the daft gangster storylines i think it gives an accurate portrayal of modern uk "life" everyone seems to be p1ssed off) and no amount of sh1t that the tv tries to coerce you to buy makes you any happier. I just fancy a nice bit of weather, the odd barbie and a beer on the veranda of an evening. But yes i could do with a long holiday in aus first it's just a bit tricky with 2 kids at school (i keep saying to the wife i will go for 3 months on my own to test the water but she seems strangely reluctant!!) Munimula. I live in Oldham, it ALWAYS RAINS HERE!

Set your pension fund up to mature in 2008/9 after the crash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mercsl Have been looking at adelaide, off to live in the burbs. Don't fancy city living don't like any cities in the uk i have always liked being out in the sticks (to a certain degree!) i am not going to live in the bush. I have been checking out the hp's on ljhooker.com and realestate.aus and am looking in the region of300k aus dollars and there seems to be loads but i won't know until i get there these houses could be in the middle of a chav estate! But when you look at what your money buys you there and what you get here there really is no comparison.

There must be a catch......There always is.

Cheers abb. I know aus has suffered with hpi just like the uk but it is coming off the boil now and with the proceeds from my house sale i could buy a 4/5 bed house with pool and have virtually no mortgage! plus it will take around 12 months for my application to go through so i hope there will be further falls in the meantime! But i am not considering going just for a bigger house, it just seems that everything is wrong in the uk right now, hpi (of course) education system in a shambles, tax rises soon are going to hit hard, chavs,violence exploding on the streets, pc government, everyone seems to have a face like a smacked @rse in the uk it all seems to be all work and no play and bill after bill after bill. At least in aus if it is still as expensive in the uk at least you have the weather instead of sitting in the house all day on a sunday trawling the web for want of owt better to do as it is p1ssing down outside! Coincidentally i was at an expats meeting recently and was amazed at how far down the line people have got with regards to going to aus but still had not sold their house but are planning for the future without actually having the funds. PS i really don't want to slag off the uk so much but there really is so much to moan about. :angry:

First of all hello again to all the hpc regulars, i have been coming to the site on and off for the last few months but just could not be bothered posting anymore but have been kept up to date with all the relevant hpc info from all the old timers on the site, cheers for the postings people without a regular dose of hpc every now and again i feel i would have crumbled under the massive weight of the vi propaganda machine and bought a scrubby semi by now. Anyway a quick update in my neck of the woods saddleworth/oldham (sh1thole) area. NOTHING is selling! in particular saddleworth has come to a complete standstill. Was talking to an ea in the area on friday (who i get on quite well with funnily enough) and she tells me they are only just ticking over and is at her wits end with sellers refusing to give up their ill gotten gains and will not drop their prices and that buyers just are not bothering at the moment (waiting for price drops) funny thing is she is now anticipating price drops and no longer tries to ramp the market up anymore and this is from the agent who started the bubble in saddleworth in the first place! I read apollo's posts with amusement, desperately trying to ramp up the market in the manchester region (don't believe the hype of the junior ea/teaboy) he is just trying to keep his job the manchester region is as flat as everywhere no one earns the wages to keep the bubble from popping up here. Anyway to cut a long story short or shorter! I am getting fed up of the str adventure, i decided to give it a year and see what happens that was jan 05 and although i can see the cracks appearing it seems to me that the government/vi's have got so much dependant on high house prices that they are doing everything possible to stop the hpc. So i have decided on waiting until the land reg figs come out in november and if they don't show a negative figure then i will give up and BUY........in Australia!! Ha Ha. There is no way i am buying into this pyramid selling con so i have decided to do what every other sane person is doing and i am getting out while the going is good. I have got the cheque written/the forms are signed and am ready to post them to my immigration agent. The sad thing is i am going not because i really fancy australia or what it has to offer (although it does have a lot) I am really doing it simply to escape the insanity of what is going on in the uk now Taxation/pc gov/chavs etc. If anyone has any good info on aus or advice it would be much appreciated. Cheers.

Added my view. I will be amazed if they put it on their site. (They never do)

I can well believe this, the wifes father is on 45k a year (house paid off/company car etc) and he is always skint/overdraw on his cc's. Goes to show you the more you earn the more you spend!

I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments fred. The uk is on a rapid downward spiral and there is no chance for mr average who simply wants to own a 3 bed semi with a garden to bring up his family in peace, I long for the days when i took no intrest in economics or hung on every word that came from the board members of the mpc for any sign of an ir rise, I do not want to trawl the web looking for more hpc tit bits to satisfy my craving for hpc news or to scan the ea websites and curse the derisory prices that greedy vendors want for their 3 bed shoeboxes, i just want to live in peace and have the time and energy to raise my 2 kids in a decent area without having to finaciialy cripple myself. All i want to do is work my 40 hour week (remember those?), come home at the end of the day and relax, not having to do what i do now eg:50/55 hour weeks(totally shagged out by weekend) and for what? I never see any more cash for my extra labour, Gordon Brown and his crappy working tax credits see to that. I don't want to even contemplate buying a house again as i am looking at least a 100k mortgage and that to me is a truly staggering amount of cash to be burdened with, Ah and to think how innocent i was as a sprightly 28 year old who bought his second house in 1999 for 65k and was fretting about borrowing that much!!! Oh how times have changed....for the worse. I thought it was bad under the tories but labour! there are no swearwords strong enough to describe my feelings about them. What has happened in the last 4/5 years? Why has it all gone so wrong? Having to compete against greedy btl who look at property as an investment and refer to houses as "units"?? I simply refer to them as a house/home. The fundamentals of uk living have become drastically skewed, somehow we have all been suckered into believing 2 bed terraces are worth 100k and we all need to have/own/buy now now now as if consumerism is the only thing that has an value/worth in todays world and stable family life is a thing of the past with mum and dad flinging their children into the arms of a total stranger for 10 hours a day all so we can keep gordon and his tax craving minions happy. Whats the solution? Well for us we are in the process of trying to go to new zealand, i think this is the only sensible course of action left open to people who play by the rules (eg:pay their taxes/go to work etc)who want to have a decent standard of living after all the bills have been paid and not have the stress/hassle/**** you attitude of the modern british citizen. Will life down under be any better? Honestly i do not know but it can't be any worse than this, I know they have something of a bubble but a pal of mine live there and he bough recently a 4 bed detached house with a pool!!! for uk price of 97k!! But hp's are not the only issue i want to live somewhere which is forward thinking and people are proud of where they come from and the quality of life is based more upon not what you earn/drive/live but more on how many friends you have and the social life you have outside of work. I am honestly truly sad about trying to do one out of the uk as i was once proud to be an englishman but i cannot help thinking if it is this bad here now how bad will it be when my boys are in their twenties, call me a cynic but i just cannot see it getting any better.

I am afraid the point is until we see house prices set to fall headlines on the front of the sun no one will believe in the hpc as most of the uk population does not read about economics on the web, they simply believe the tripe printed in the daily rag.

oh crap, try google and type in- living in england is a rip off. Sorry I hate computers! yeah got to go back and browse the site for any more insightfull, economic ahemm information!

it seems the sun is waking up to the idea that people are struggling. Sorry don't know how to do a link to it, just go to the sun.co.uk and the article is their along with a facility to post your views. Go for it, if the "uk's biggest selling daily" gets in on the idea that people are struggling we may get some bearish articles in the news.

Nice one webmaster. ********** filled the empty space while hpc was down but this is the place to be!

No Muggy Bear, it is rubbish isn't it? You simply get to the stage where you think is it worth it? all this rushing around/stress/hassle/missing out on watching your kids grow up, all for a few quid a month extra for grabber gordon to squeeze a bit more tax out of. Well we are not playing the game anymore, family is more important. That is a fair point gen x. The problem being is hard working families having the mum forced back to work as they cannot survive any other way, it's only after a couple of months when you tot your finances up that you realise you are working effectivley for nothing. £500 a month for nursery fees is extortion as if you are a homeowner on the "average wage" you get pretty much nothing back in tax credits etc as you are always just above the threshold for qualifying for any worthwhile benefits. The wholechildcare/taxation system under labour is totally biased as the average earner is getting taxed more and having his/her own personal wealth redistributed to sandra slapper who sits on her ar5e all day popping out kids for a hobby and claiming for all she is worth! I totally agree with you about third world wages for the nursery nurses it is scandalous, these girls are doing a great job looking after our children and being paid a pittance. How come it is so much better in sweden/norway etc they have got the whole childcare system sussed, Why is it the uk is happy sending kids into the arms of strangers from morn till night with barely a glimpse of their guilt ridden mum who is FORCED back into being a wage slave. We are breeding a generation that will be emotionally crippled by being abandoned at birth and shoved into the arms of a stranger and for what??? So mum and dad can just about put a roof over their heads. Thank you very much Mr.Blair/Brown for the wonderfully strong uk economy that puts profit before people.