nam_vet

I put a load of money into an A&L savings account with a big headline rate only for them to chop down the interest by 1/2% a few months later and replace it with another headline savings account with a similar name and the original rate. Now I have to wait till July to get me money out without penalty. I don’t think I will be putting any more money into a A&L variable rate savings account in the near future. The B&B account sounds a good bet for a 6 month bond. Anything under 35K and your money is safe. I wouldn’t put more than 35K with the B&B though.

very interesting,, one thing I would add is that whenever I see the historical 'affordability graphs' on the property pages, they never take into account the fact that 20 years ago we still had MIRAS....a big factor often overlooked by the press I think.

no worries, just getting used to posting to the forum....... Whilst we are on the subject of "interpreting figures" maybe someone could put me right on this one........ When people quote income multiples, what on earth do they mean, do they mean a multiple of a single persons income, a couples joint income, 1.5 times joint income ,gross income, net income...... Income multiples are often quoted in the papers and on this site as an important measure of affordability, but no-one ever seems to define them.

Thanks for the welcome, The reason why I used the '30% overvalued' was because I was trying to comment on the articles that I have read recently, and that’s the phrase that they use. Market perception and sentiment is a very important influencing factor in house prices and these articles irrespective of their detailed phrasing are important in determining its overall direction. For my penny's worth, I think that your average £380,000 semi in Cheltenham will sell for about £170,000 in 4 years time if we go into recession. There you go, a prediction without a single percentage sign in it!

Thanks for welcome me on my first post.. A little more courtesy and slack for a new user would not go amiss. If you have an issue with the accuracy, then maybe you should also mail the moderator who vetted my first post before it was posted to the main forum. As for the reputation of the forum, I suggest that those who blatantly revel in the financial distress they think many people will be caught up in the next few years does far more to discredit it than my post ever could.

After lurking on the forum for a few months now, I thought I really should contribute to the debate. You can see by a quick trawl of the national press that a number of economists / columnists are starting to come out of the woodwork and proclaim that house prices are 30% plus overvalued. See IMF surveys, capital economics surveys, HSBC surveys….etc… My point is that anyone with a basic knowledge of markets knows that they always overshoot on the way up AND on the way down. Greed and fear and all that. So next time you read an article saying that prices are over-valued by 30% are they really telling you that they think prices will fall by up-to 50%. What do you think.. Chelt 'nam_vet'