Marc Beswick

and how much has the city been contributing lately?

it wasnt aimed at you it was aimed at the thread starter.....my fault for asuming people would understand who it was aimed at

..........did he help his argument by saying he lived outside of london

the fact you think this and live outside of london makes you even more deluded.

once again the isolation of the people living within london is astounding.......at least 1 person per household earning 30K? do you realise what a comment like that does to any credability you may think you have? do you realise how small your little city actually is compared to the rest of the country? youre a FOOL!!!

my point is everyone thought they were "property investors" owning a home used to mean you had some security for your family, owning a car means you have transport and owning a sports car means............

i think youll find the problems in the housing market have more to do with people treating their HOMES as a way of making cash instead of LIVING in them... how many "property investors" did you know at the height of the bubble?

I was on a very good salary for the area and the house I purchased reflected this but i wasnt talking about the higher earners and the more luxury houses - i was talking about the average earners and the cheapest houses maybe its a reflection of the society in which we live that u think owning your own home is a choice similar to that of buying a sports car

what he said!

this is what i was saying that the prices have to fall to the levels that peoples wages allow them to buy at, its not a "god given right", its simple economics - its a housing MARKET and at the moment its outpricing itself and that was a very poor analagy, a family home and a sports car?

there are no studio flats around here, rural uk is a lot different from london, and its not only first time buyers who cant afford the cheapest houses its everyone - awwwwww what a shame you cant afford that porsche

this is what ive been saying to people i know - if you say this stuff out loud its like its a joke you earn £15,000 and you live in a house that cost you £100,000 or even worse you earn nothing and you live in a house that cost you £100,000 as so many people around here are now facing people need jobs to get a 10-20% pay rise

a lot of people are living in denial

i think the days of affordable property were over when the boom started, people were fooled into thinking they were affordable by the lending practices of the banks i agree that the whole thing is FUBAR, it was before the housing bubble - i said to my friends quite a few years ago that even if you take away the impending doom of the housing market things are looking bleak, the government was more than happy for people to be kept smiling and spending on the back of the housing bubble because it knew that was the only thing keeping the country afloat, werent we all meant to be working in IT or call centres when the manufacturing industry finally failed - ah thats right they can do that cheaper elsewhere, they can do everything cheaper elsewhere - we as a tiny country with little or no natural resources have been fighting well above our weight for a long time - maybe the CITY can save us

now that the days of unsecured lending is a thing of the past and the banks return to the days of cautious lending does this mean the house prices will innevitably fall to the pre bubble prices or lower as people loose jobs and wages are cut. Historically the house prices were dictated by the wages of the people in that area, then unsecured loans changed all that with people being allowed to borrow as much as they wanted. Now that banks are back to the old lending practices surely the prices can only fall back into line. I live in a small industrial town in county durham and the average wage in this area is £12,000-£15,000 with many many people earning minimum wage, now explain to me how people earning these levels can afford to buy houses which are priced at £90,000-£100,000? (the cheapest ex-council houses in this area) yet i still see people saying house prices may fall by 10,20 or maybe even 30% - i say it is inevitable that they will fall back to the level pre bubble.......when i purchased my house pre bubble i paid £57,000 for a 3 bed detached, i put down a £7,000 deposit and borrowed £50,000 - i earned £24,000, my monthly mortgage payments were £400+ - that same house i paid £57,000 for was upto £220,000 at the height of the bubble, yet people were earning the same wages they were when it was at £57,000, people are earning less today if they have a job at all