pendragon

What have we under 35's got to offer the country?

40% during what is traditionally the busiest time of the year, that is astonishing. Walking into work now, I see for-sale signs on nearly every street. PD

From looking at the 'What are house prices doing in your area?' forum it appears that SW Wales certainly does have a particularly over-inflated market at the moment, so it would be a poor editor who did not print at least some version of your letter. Good night, PD

I too was shocked when I read this article, but on reflection I'm sure it has been 'coloured up' for effect. She may (or may not be) financially short-sighted, to say the least, but she's certainly an excellent journalist - look at the response she's provoked here and on House Price Chat! If I were bringing up four children, I'd probably be 40,000 good british pounds in debt too. It's a sensitive issue: to what extent should financial considerations control your family planning? There's no way I could afford 4 kids (if I wanted them!), so I say good on her for going ahead regardless!

deliberate typo, no? I thought it was quite clever!

Masked Tulip, Substance of letter looks fine to me. However, it seems quite long for a local paper letters page, so it might well be cut to be more pithy. Also, most newspapers go for shorter paragraphs. Alternatively, you could make it a bit longer, re-jig it slightly, maybe add some more local stuff, and offer it as a feature? Just an idea. They might give you a few shillings for it! Is your local paper a weekly or a daily? You might want to release to coincide with - or respond to - this week's forthcoming MPC decision. Good luck, PD

Yes, I'd like to see PR. Was very surprised to see that that mock election website didn't even offer the Greens as an option. If you don't want to vote for any of the other parties, voting Green is still better than spoiling your vote: you may help the party get their deposit back for that candidate (important for the small parties), and I'm sure there are central party number-crunchers who will monitor all the minority-party votes nationwide. Not that I know who I'm going to vote for yet myself...

Thanks for that breakdown BubbleTrouble. I'm trying not to think about the property market too much: obsessing about it just makes time pass slower while I wait for the Spring bounce to bounce downwards, sales figures to become seasonally adjusted stats, the MPC to raise IRs, the media to change their tune, etc, etc, etc. I have to be patient and wait for any worthwhile falls to play out in their own sweet time. However, the casual browsing I've done prompts me to agree with Thistle - my impression was of slightly more FPs around just before Xmas than there are now. This might well be a seasonal factor though. One figure I'm keeping an eye on is the total properties available, on the top right of ESPC's homepage. When I started looking it was at about 4,400 - now it's well over 5,000, and rising. Awaiting the ESPC's next sales report with interest. Just as an anecdote: one property I was looking at in Nov/Dec had gone from o/o £69k to f/p £85k. I e-mailed the vendor's solicitors to arrange a viewing, and they kindly just told me straight out that it had 'major structural problems'. So yes, 'falling down'. Apparently only one surveyor was willing to approve it.

I would pay up to £80,000 (at a push) for a nice 1 bed flat. The kind of flats I've been looking at have been going for about £95,000 recently. In 2003 they would have sold for about £70,000.

right freds dead, That was a heartfelt but well-argued post. It seems wrong that someone in your position should feel forced into making such a decision ... something in this society has to change. Sometimes this country seems work-crazy - why do we do it? A huge proportion of all the labour we used to do is now automated, and yet the days of a one-breadwinner family are well and truly over. Even a working couple can barely afford children, these days. Maybe it's true that our generation have higher materialistic expectations, but at the same time we all know that its our own consumerism that's helping to keep the country's economy afloat. Shopping is almost a patriotic duty these days. Far better, if you can afford it, to enjoying living your one and only life, be a part of the community, and make a tacit but persuasive lifestyle vote for a better world. Best of luck for the future and thanks for providing such an interesting post! PD

Recently I read somewhere, either here on HPC or on Housepricechat, that house prices in Edinburgh hadn't recorded below 0% growth in the past 38 years. As mentioned above, there seems to have been a fall in the past six months, so either that statistic is calculated annually, or it is now no longer true. Agreed, o/o prices are still depressingly high - and EAs have told me that that they expect sale prices at 15 -20% over o/o. It just can't go on...

FTBs Section: Living at home/rented/shared etc: Moved home in November after flatsharing, plan to rent solo in about June. When you plan to buy, or if: Prepared to rent for a couple of years. Could already stretch a purchase at 3.5 x income, but want more than a human-hutch. Don't enjoy my current job either, so waiting until I'm more settled. Given current footlooseness, if opportunity arose would consider moving to work abroad for a year or two. Rental Costs: Were £260pcm + bills Rent going down or up:Living at home gratis (thanks Mum!). Do you think the market will continue to fall: Increasingly confident that market will fall, but unsure at what rate of knots. At 29 & three quarters, with umpteen flatshares under my belt and strained parental relations, I really want my own place!! Want a home not an investment - but resolved not to sign away my financial future with needless debt. I accept that others may have been 'winners' through luck or good timing, but will avoid if I can being one of the 'losers'.

"The number of homes on sale at the average estate agency has more than doubled from 38 in January 2004 to 75 last month, Wednesday's data suggest." Hmmm... Strange that on the intro of an FT article, the mistake slips through that 75 is more than double 38!!

I was interested in a one bed + box flat in Gorgie, Edinburgh. It went very recently for (I'm pretty sure) low 90's. According to Nethouseprices, it changed hands in April '03 for 68k. That means, if this sale goes thruogh, that the value has gone up about a grand a month for two whole years. Even if 92k is affordable, it does make you wonder why you should pay that much. G'night.

Browsing through the HPC shows some extremely bearish views, but I'm not at all convinced that there's going to be anything like a similar crash/correction in Scotland. You can still get a small but reasonable FTB flat in the city centre of Edinburgh or Glasgow for <£80k, which, judging by other posts, you certainly can't down south. Remember that in days of yore, it wasn't uncommon for newlyweds to start out by living in a caravan. Getting on the so-called ladder has never been easy. There should be at least some small drops in prices though. I've only been watching the property market for a few months, but it's clear that more flats are going up for sale - particularly in the BTL-rich studenty areas - and are taking longer to shift. Awaiting the Spring with interest... The views of other tartan FTB's welcome!

But could you pay back your Student Loans with your credit card... and then go bankrupt? There must be better ways to stimulate enterprise than making bankruptcy easier - lowering business tax, for example...

I read the same story yesterday (I think it might have been the Sunday Times). If I remember rightly, the Daily Mail's headline is based on a hard figure of 9,000 - that's 5,400 Under 30 bankrupts. Probably more worrying is the huge loads of debt carried by hundreds of thousands of still-solvent people.

Thanks Dr Bubb. I do worry though that any falls in house prices are going to be cancelled out by IR rises, especially for FTB's with only small deposits. Cheaper housing is not going to do you any favours if you still have to pay back an exorbitant amount. I suppose amassing a big chunky deposit is the only solution.

Centrallondon, I'm a would-be FTB too, and I've been feeling much the same way. After thinking it over, though, I've decided that I've waited so long that I can hang on a little longer and wait until about July. Between now and then: a - chances are the Spring Market won't bounce. A lot more properties will go on the market, and that will be when panic-selling sets in. b - The General Election will have taken place. I know the BofE is independent, but my feeling is that at this stage that they probably won't raise IRs until May - but that they will raise them. c - Taxes also look set to rise: lower income = lower property prices. d - You never know, Mr Brown might raise stamp duty thresholds in the next budget. There's a strong demand for it. e - my deposit will be slightly less miniscule. Having said that, market will be very different where you are. I live in Scotland, and apparently price falls always begin -and end- in London much earlier. But, unless it becomes evident that prices are in freefall, ideally I'm hoping to buy between August 05 and April 06, when the residential property becomes open to SIPP investment. If prices aren't falling by then, I think my patience might give out...! Good luck to you, whatever you decide.