Guest_flaps_*

You make your own decisions, but the way you are talking, you seem to be of the opinion property is going to go up again significantly in the non too distant, hence the desire to stretch yourself to buy the best place you can now while your earnings are at their highest you expect them to be for a while and you don't want to 'miss the boat'. Jump on board quick, they are casting off.

Sorry, you've lost me? Buy now based on your current salary because your salary might go down in the future?

I reckon they are even more hell bent on it than liebour were. I was hoping they might drift up just a little bit under the coalition, but I've sadly given up on that after hearing Clegg this morning repeat about 400 times that VAT had to go up to prevent a possible rise in interest rates further down the line.

Channel flicking on the radio this morning and I caught the back end of an interview on Radio Sheffield. It was with an independant finacial adviser, who basically said "It's time to stop looking at houses as investment vehicles as they are not anymore, but instead as somewhere we would like to live". He also pointed out that money made on houses is purely "wooden dollars" as you have to sell to realise the gain and then must rent, or pay even more for a bigger place and that the only people who really gain from high house prices are those who are selling to move abroad and that it is time to look at other areas to invest (although he was unable to offer any when pushed!!) The presenter agreed with everything he said and offered no counter arguments, nor did he try and throw in any of the standard HPI media obsessive cliques either. Not much of an anecdotal I admit, but was refreshing to hear some common sense without a presenter then trying to offer 'optimism' to their listeners by countering what was said with the usual rhetoric. Was also good to hear it pointed out that financial 'gains' in housing really aren't that at all for the majority of people. Maybe, slowly, it is starting to sink in!

This 40% increase, is it just due to more and more people claiming under labour's tenure, or is it due to them increasing how much people can claim? Is there anywhere you can view, say, the last 10 years claimants by volume?

Over 500K Then reduced to 250K Plus increased rates. Its a start.

Yup, I know this is only one company, but I fail to believe it is not being replicated many times over. And we are not talking about the usual 2 or 3% attempts at driving prices up. I'm not close enough to the coal face to know if what they are saying regarding Corus and others is true, but it certainly makes sense knowing what we do on here. 25%???. Bosh!!

A nice little email from one of our suppliers................ I would advise you that Corus, amongst others, have recenlty announced significant increases in the cost of raw materials and it also intimated that this trend will continue over the forthcoming months and due to the severity of the uplift in costs we will have no alternative but to pass these onto yourselves. Whilst we are awaiting exact numbers we are advised that raw materials will increase during May by in the region of 20-25% Happy days.

Possibly, I have heard various things about the debts being written off, but nothing concrete. I cant believe the post '98 students won't start doing some serious rioting once the penny finally dawns on them that for the majority, their student loan wil just be a 9% tax for a seriously long portion of their working lives, if not all.

Is the situation still the same regarding loans taken out after 1998, that you pay back about 9% of you salary once you earn above £15K, or has this changed again?

High inflation with rising unemployment and static/falling wages. Sweet.

Well I guess if you believe the current status quo can be maintained for years and years and years fair enough. Edit: Also, how are they going to be able to keep servicing their debt with 'increasing ease'?

Because even if the above happens, if you have cash and are not tied to a crippling mortgage, there are many millions who will go down the swanny before you do. In other words, the way I see it is no matter what plays out, I'll always be in a far better position than the many. And can get the hell out the country if needs be.

Agree. I feel those of us who are renting and have been looked down upon with pity/distain by those who have saddled themselves to huge debts over the last 5 years or so, will soon be looking at us with envy instead. And all that interest the savings are currently missing out on will be returned and then some once the month on month price drops start again.

You are talking as though unemployemnt will not keep rising, probably at a far faster rate after the election and the rest will be enjoying large year on year payrises. I keep drifting into your way of thinking and then remembering what a great buffer a good wedge in the bank is and I'm very glad to have it, as well as not having committed myself to a mamouth mortgage.

Indeed. Wasnt oil at about $147 a barrel when prices peaked last summer and now we are there again at just $87 a barrel?!!

Bring down the cost of living.

Well we do lag them quite a bit!

Whats the old saying, "where the US goes, the UK follows"?

If thats really the case, then they won't be buying in with just a further drop of 5 or 10% either.

Was that an intentional play on words?

Thank all the womens rights lot. Equality for women! So now both have to work to pay the mortgage, because once a few started bidding on houses with joint salaries, the rest had to follow suit or 'miss out'.

I wish similar would start happening in south yorks as well. Some quite ridiculously priced terraces in Sheffield, although to be fair, they don't seem to be selling. Ive just seen one unremarkable 3 bed terrace drop its price from £155K to £145K. They paid £136K in 2006. It sold for £50K in 2000. I might offer to split the difference with them!

Haha it did sound very much like some clued up person from here. I think it was his use of the phrases 'bear rally' and 'dead cat bounce'. And also the fact he just stated it all in a very calm and controlled manner. Hopefully some VI's had had fallen asleep with their radios on and got the message subliminally!!

Was rather tired last night and meandering up the otorway I had Radio 5 on as I'd heard th rumour about the the stamp duty change to £250K. Anyway, it was mentioned by the host and they brought someone on to talk about it. The question asked was along the lines of "how good is this for the housing market"? Anyway, the response was pretty much "it will do nothing, we are at the end of a bear rally, there has been a dead cat bounce and now prices will have to fall at least 10-15%, not a lot can be done about it". And that was pretty much it, no counter argument or anything, host just said cheerio and off we went to the news. Does anyone else hear this, or was I actually asleep at the wheel and dreaming it? And if not, does anyone know who the expert was (geniune expert, as he actually talked sense, apart from the 10-15% fall, but probably didnt want to appear a nut case while being allowed to speak unchallenged!!). *just spotted the spelling error in the title but do not seem able to change it. Bugger!*