Fed Up

One thing I have never understood is the popularity of Warwick Gates, the high prices of which are out of synch with the lack of amenities - I mean there is nothing there other than a small Co-op. I saw an 'affordable' two-bedroomed house there five years ago for £125k. It had two garages built in at the front, neither of which actually belonged to it, so effectively about half of the ground floor space of the dwelling was not actually part of the property. Peak prices for them would have been about £160k (the house that is not the garage).

The Ambrose article is rubbish, the Halligan article is quite good, at least speaking on behalf of savers (something that is gradually becoming more common in the media. Our voices are being heard in the broadsheets, now we need to get them heard in the tabloids and on the television.

The problem is of course, finding somewhere safe to keep whatever currency you can buy. IMO the Euro will start to fall when the German and French governments have to borrow heavily to prop up their already heavily subsidised manufacturing industries. Added to that, if Spain and Ireland try and borrow their way out of recession, British-style, from whom are they going to borrow? The ECB will need to get the virtual printing presses going. If the ECB does not want to bail out Spain and Ireland then how long before they drop out of the Euro? Yes savings rates are crud, but even though Brown wants to inflate away the debt, he has got 18 months to do it and he won't succeed. Market sentiment towards housing is now so bearish that falls will be in double-digit percentage figures year-on-year for at least the next two years and probably a year or two beyond that. So your savings get say 2% net after tax, whilst the house you want to buy is dropping 10% to 15% per annum. Hence it is still worth saving.

It will allow Brown to claim that 'inflation is coming down' thereby 'justifying' another rate cut.

Ditto Durham. Taunton Deane I always thought of as a predominantly farming area - as are Wansbeck and Castle Morpeth? I thought Coventry would be in there as the city council is the single largest employer, followed by the eponymous building society.

But surely the homebrew stuff is still subject to VAT and duty - so you are still paying Gordo?

I'll repeat my bearish comment of another thread, that due to massive impending job losses in the next two years, I fully expect average household incomes to fall back to the level they were in 1995 when the average house price was 2.5 times that. 15 years of both of wage and house price inflation will have been wiped out. Back then in 1995, here in Coventry, we still had a small streamlined vehicle manufacturing base: Massey Ferguson (tractors), Peugeot (206's) and Jaguar as well as smaller supply companies. These have all closed within the past 5 years. All that is left is LTI (taxis) which at £40k a bang are not going to get many customers now. Back then in 1995, here in Coventry, you could buy a 2-bedroom Victorian terraced house in one of the cheapest parts of town for about £30k, or in a better area for about £35k. A 3-bedroomed inter-war bay-windowed terraced would cost just under £40k in an average part of town, with a semi being about £42k, but no higher than £45k. A new-build Bryant type 2-bedroomed house would also cost about £40k. Can anyone give me rational reasons why prices should be higher than these, given that there is less money coming into the area now, than there was then, to support them?

You've summed it up quite well. The banks will be entirely dependent on taxpayer funding, meaning nationalisation, so McStalin gets exactly what he wants.

And how else is Venezuela going to earn its export revenue? Chavez will not sell directly to the Yanks, but he will still need to sell to others.

Let's assume that there is a general election in 18 months time: Gradually raise interest rates - I don't mean sharp hikes - but re-establish an upward trend to stabilise at about 5% to 6%. That way confidence in Sterling investment will gradually rise again. Legislate that all building societies be 100% capitalised by savers, like they used to be. Good thread, we need to gather momentum, it is no good relying on any of the other parties, for they all want to inflate away the debt and destroy our currency. Perhaps we should call it the Sterling Party (if the UKIP haven't already beaten us to it with the pound symbol).

I'd like to see mortgage borrowers paying 4 times the BoE base rate with savers getting 6 times the BoE base rate.

Both!

Cut interest rates to zero, watch as savers withdraw all their deposits, so the banks need more taxpayer bailouts. Bailouts result in 100% nationalisation of all banks and building societies. McStalin gets ultimate control.

My YBS Regular Saver has dropped from 7.10% pre-December 2007 rate cut to 4.50% post-December 2008 rate cut. As for its 'safety', it was offering 115% mortgages last year.

I would vote for an anti-inflation, anti-bailout party, but there isn't one. No poltical party is going to promise to raise interest rates, therefore I can't find the motivation to vote for any of them.

I genuinely believe that prices will fall back to 1995 levels right across the board, because average incomes are going to fall back to that level as well, with our economy being in a far worse state now than it was then. There wil be no 'bottom' of the market for at least a decade as prices will continue falling for that long.

Then let them do it and face the consequences. Their delusions of grandeur will soon become apparent. They will get little public support in Britain or the US from outside the Zionist lobby.

Bullsh1t certainly.

... you pay your Sky TV subscription using your family tax credits.

Agree entirely - we should stop subsidising all mortgage lenders. Only then will they get the message that we deserve a better return on the money we lend to them.

There are three good reasons for pulling all your money out: It is safe from the clutches of that control freak Brown and his muppet stooge Darling. It is necessary to teach the banks and building societies (which are just as culpable) a lesson - they must either pay higher savings rates or we, en masse, will bring them down. You are no longer indirectly financing anyone else's mortgage via a third party. These views need to be aired on all money-related websites, not just this one where we are preaching to the converted.

I fancy a Porsche for a few hundred quid - I'll settle for an Audi 1.9 Diesel though.

The bull trap, into which many BTLs fell, was three years ago, when the market had stagnated but the BoE reflated it. There will be no more bull traps during this cycle of boom and bust.

Then bide your time. Even Royal Yuppington Spa will see a price crash, though all my work colleagues who live there believe that it won't.

Really, wow. My electricity supplier put my monthly payment up from £23 to £52 as of this month, based on the latter supposedly being my average use throughout the year! Energy prices have gone up way beyond official RPI, in no small part due to the deliberate devaluation of Sterling. Deflation is a LIE peddled by those who want to destroy our currency and inflate away the debt.