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About MrFlibble
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Chant after me - you cannot go wrong with bricks and mortar For every winner there is an equal and opposit loser. It's all well and good people extracting all these unearned profits from property but the next mugs who come along must cover all these profits using wages that haven't remotely kept pace with our disfunctional housing market. Unless we get some wage inflation then I'm struggling to see how this current rally in prices doesn't hit the rocks.
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Rent Costs £124 More A Month Than A Mortgage
MrFlibble replied to rollover's topic in House prices and the economy
Based on my own circumstances I could save 45% of my rent (gets better over time) if I buy my rental and start paying a mortgage. This is if I take out a BR + 1.99% Tracker from Santander with a 40% deposit, which is currently earning 1.71% Gross interest (instant access). It would take me 11 months to break even before I start seeing the savings - 2% buying cost, 1% stamp and 1% for solicitor / mortgage fees. These calculations are done with the mortgage payment and rent set at exactly the same level. It would take 180 months (15 years) to clear the 60% mortgage. I did my own spreadsheet for these calculations, which factors in the savings / deposit interest offset. I didn't incorporate any maintenance costs or buildings insurance. Adjusting the spreadsheet to factor in a typical H2B deal - 5% interest with a 5% deposit, same monthly amount for mortgage, after 300 months (25 years) I'd have paid off 2.5% of the mortgage leaving just 92.5% from the 95% I started with I guess it is better to buy then rent after all Plus you get to spin the wheel at Osborne's Lucky Wheel of Housing Misfortune. -
Halifax House Prices Up 2.4% In Feb Alone
MrFlibble replied to rantnrave's topic in House prices and the economy
I think Osborne shot his wad a little too early with H2B. Keeping this thing spinning until the election is looking doubtful with MoM increases this daft. They'll burn it out if they are not careful. -
Thank you very much for all your info. We applied to Canada with the idea of being more rural but unfortunately didn't get in, well, we didn't even have our application looked at in almost 6 years and in the end they sent us a refund for the application fees. It's either a long commute from the North of England for me since I only need to go into the office once or twice a week or a complete move abroad. The last straw (of many) was the when we received a call from an estate agent two weeks after looking at a rental for £1200 a month. I was polite and described it as dingy but in all honesty it was a shit hole. Anyway, he said if we lower our expectations he had something else to show us. When pressed on the matter it turned out the place he had was much the same as the other one. Competing like this, paying more for less is very bad. It's a race to the bottom now in the UK. I thought people would wake up when they discovered they'd been eating horse instead of beef but it would appear not. I don't know how far people can continue to be pushed before they break. The other half works in Retail Management and the stories her staff tell about their struggle to cover the basics just boggles the mind. Society has now deteriorated to the point where thieves now openly pull up outside her store, walk in, pick up six boxes of product, walk back out again and drive off. To add insult to injury the ones doing the stealing are burly Easer Europeans, although not all of them to be fair. This is in a place where it cost £1200 to rent a crap hole and over £350k to buy the same crap hole. What's wrong with this picture? About the only thing higher house prices guarantee is a lower standard of living, I just wish people would wake up and realise it.
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What's the employment situation like over there now? I've been looking at Southern Ireland for a while and it's amazing what you can get for the money, especially if you are flexible in terms of location. Sadly my career isn't portable but it's got to the stage where me and the other half are sick and tired of playing this race to the bottom game here in the South East.
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Nationwide October 2013 +1.0% Mom +5.8% Yoy
MrFlibble replied to crashmonitor's topic in House prices and the economy
What you describe there wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the last part, the boom in properly prices. If we could achieve the same but with some unwinding of the debt burden and stagnant/falling property prices then I could see a sustainable path forward and some signs of a increase in living standards. This doesn't seem to be what they want though and any signs of deflation and de-leveraging cause TPTB to crap in their pants. I'm assuming the grand plan, if there is one, is to get wage inflation going at some point? Surely deflating wages and inflating house prices can only go so far before people simply cannot afford to drive to work or put food on the table any more? If Gas and Electric are anything to go by then I can see even more people struggling this year than last. -
Nationwide October 2013 +1.0% Mom +5.8% Yoy
MrFlibble replied to crashmonitor's topic in House prices and the economy
Hard to tell what is moving quicker, the housing market up or the quality of life down. Still I'm sure they are not related in any way. I was looking over my old neck of the woods the other day in Milton Keynes using Property Bee, detached houses up to £400k, about half a dozen increases and five dozen reductions out of 256 properties. Either the price increase wave out of London hasn't hit MK yet or the numbers are BS, sadly I suspect the former. Who the hell is driving this I'm not sure, I'd have thought FTB's would have given up completely by now. It does look like new builds are getting snapped up at record speed though, probably George Osborne's help-to-sell scheme at play here. Looking over the whole crisis from 2007 it would seem the nutters running the asylum have shoved all the chips on the very same section of the roulette table that blew up in the first place, only this time around we have interest rates at virtually zero and boundless money printing, neither of which are working at creating any real sustainable economic activity. More debt piled on top of a big pile of existing debt, that's all we seem to have. It's a FAIL. -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
Brilliant summary. Sovereigns selling their Gold to pay off odious debts is bad enough, but to announce it beforehand is just plain stupid, which seems to be what happened with Cyprus. Dumping on the open market isn't required and won't happen. A quick call to China will sort that problem out, we'll take the Gold, here's a pile of US Treasuries, enjoy... The more they push Gold down the more physical China and Russia will remove and the more US Treasuries will be sold. If this is an attempt to save the Dollar then it's a poor job. Given the amount of non US Dollar trade agreements starting up one does have to wonder what the hell is going on here. Maybe it is simply a case of no more printing of money that's driving down Gold, if so, bring it on, a deflationary collapse sounds good to me - the UK housing market desperately needs one that is for sure! -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
HGM have roughly the same stock now as before the weekend, people appear to be picking at it piece by piece though. I suspect if this bounce off $1400 goes a little higher they'll be cleaned out later today. I don't think we are done myself, at least I hope not. No desperadoes on eBay yet either with ridiculously low BIN's trying to offload their stash. -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
All the supports are gone, this sucker is going down. It's feeding on itself now. Gold bug splatter is everywhere... Nobody is going to take the buy side of this in the paper market that is for sure, not unless they have a good supply of shirts I had this event pencilled in for when the Euro broke apart, but instead it seems to have been triggered by the banksters advising the people to go sell their Gold. Not to worry, there is strong support somewhere and with £50+ a day drops we'll be there soon enough I look forward to Dollar cost averaging lower, but I'll not hold my breath... -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
You've been reading King World News again Sorry, couldn't resist The beauty of today's markets is you don't have to implement a confiscation racket to get people to turn over their Gold on the cheap, you simply drive the paper price down and scare people into turning it over. Lets see if HGM have received a flurry of Jiffy bags this morning from frustrated Gold bugs fearing the worst, after all, they gave us a nice long weekend to think it over Be interesting to see when the dust settles just how much inventory they have clawed back with this. Also be interesting to see if the beating is complete or not. My only conclusion here is that the greatest wealth transfer of our time continues unabated. -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
All the ducks are now lined up, in the US, indexes are hitting new highs, the media is full of recovery and the worst is behind us talk, the Golden safe haven is looking unsafe (no longer required), unemployment is falling, people are starting to buy houses and cars again and the Federal Reserve are suggesting exit strategies and ending QE. Much the same can be said for the UK. This it it folks, they have engineered what looks like a recovery, one can only assume they are hoping like crazy it actually turns into one. What I'm really looking forward to is the day the Federal Reserve takes away the punchbowl and allows the economy to stand on its own two feet. -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
Today @ Atkinsons http://www.atkinsonsthejewellers.com/gold-coins "Due to volatility in the precious metal markets we are unable to take any further orders at present. Please call for further information." Not sure why this is as I was under the impression dealers used the spot or fix market to short their physical stock and simply make profit on the buy/sell spread. There is no volatility here, the price is simply crashing... As anyone successfully bought at £980 + premium today, if so where? I have some filthy fiat I'd like to dispose of! -
Gold strategy in the current economy
MrFlibble replied to Lepista's topic in House prices and the economy
You would think the west would want to force the Russians and Chinese to pay more for this barbaric relic not less, unless the west (US) simply doesn't have the Gold and is forcing the paper price down so it can buy the physical on the cheap - to fulfil the likes of the German repatriation request. The good thing here is we may finally find out what the true price of physical Gold is - at some point in this fall the physical buyers will step in, be it at $1000, $100 or $10. From what I read the cost of mining an ounce of Gold is around $1200 and Silver $27. If this is to be believed then Gold as a way to fall but Silver can now be bought for less than the mining costs. Be interested to know if anyone as better numbers for these mining costs... I luck forward to the day an Oz of Gold is $0.01, then I can finally buy that Solid Gold house like that hobo in The Simpsons