Henrik

Just to pick up on this point. I'm keeping a quarter of an eye on the market in Sweden, and so far there's not much sign of prices coming down there (from what I've seen). I don't have any data on transaction levels etc, but I know for sure that several of my friends back there are still actively looking to buy, and houses are still going to sealed bids.

"According to a report" - What report, or did the other facts in it not fit with the DM agenda so they hid the source? The biggest cost was apparently changing data systems so that people could have access to their files - hardly the courts fault that the rubbish systems couldn't cope with simple requests. The second biggest about stopping torture. Bleeding hell, Daily Mail, you'd rather have 500000+ people potentially tortured than spend 2.4 billion. Jesus wept! etc etc.

It's a Daily Mail article about dirty foreigners stealing money off the tax payer. Caution needed when drawing any conclusions from this article IMO.

Oh no, that would be absolutely terrible Good news is that it should still work for your "own" searches, i.e. the ones that don't rely on the back end server, so if you periodically do the same search, you'll still see changes.

What if you have a couple of kids? Are you going to stack them like logs in your rented room? I think the post was pointing out that if you have kids, then 30'ish is not a lot at all in London.

Just to add my 2p's worth.. Both myself and my wife are 30, and we both work in London earning relatively good money. However, I'm scared to buy a house at the current levels. If I'm honest with myself it is in large part because I would feel like a prize twit for having held off since 2004 and then finally giving in and buying in 2010, but also because we'd need a mortgage of about 300k to buy anything I'd be happy with long term. We could easily service a 300k mortgage right now, but we're trying for kids, and what if one of us lost our jobs? Then all of a sudden the comfy life style with loads of spending money turns into a nightmare with a 2000pcm mortgage that you have no chance in hell in servicing on anything less than a 60k+ salary (IMO once other living expenses are taken into account). Between us we save about 1200-1300 per month, and I don't see the point of saving any more to be honest. We're both young and IMO we need to do things now that we'll be too old to do later on (or we might just keel over and die...). My grand parents told me to do fun and interesting things before I was too old, and I actually wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. I love my expensive hobbies, and I love travelling so I'll keep saving whatever is left over, but I would *not* live a frugal life and miss out on things I want to do just for the sake of building up savings - I could be gone tomorrow. Now, even though I'm materially really well off, I feel incredibly unfairly treated by the system. Why should I have to pay 4-500k for a decent size home when the older generation paid nowhere near similar "real" prices, hence I'm not planning on buying anything at the moment (my wife has other ideas, though)... As far as I'm concerned, at the current price levels they can stuff their expensive houses up their behinds! Thank God that house prices are seemingly negative year on year now again, at least it gives a glimmer of hope to us younger ones that we might not have to sign our whole lives away to mortgage slavery.

That is a pretty decent pay rise, at least in percentage terms. I wonder how much an average Jaguar worker earns roughly?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11692255 Actually, so far at least the BBC isn't exactly ramping. Maybe we need to give them some time...

2) everybody thinks you're insane because you don't think house prices can go up in perpetuity.

I did, but I doubt I'll get a mention

No, that is very true. I think the clue is in the colour of the BBC logo myself, but hopefully with a new government it can start turning to a more neutral stance, but obviously that will take a long long time as it's such a huge organisation.

I'm reading a book called "Flat Earth News" at the moment, and it's about modern day journalism and how it's not really journalism at all as the "journalists" are now supposed to write up to 10 stories a day, which means that all they end up doing is copying stuff almost verbatim from press releases, as they have no time to check facts let alone get out of the office to actually find some stories of their own. Obviously whoever wrote the press release (usually PR people) often have a vested interest in having something come up in print, which is why we get drivel like this (blatant propaganda).

I have nothing to add to the debate, but did Alan Hutton have anything to do with the ONS under Labour by any chance?

What a joke the media are... I imagine every single one would have mentioned a record rise in house prices!

I made a coffee mid way through the BBC 10pm news, so might have missed it, but did they really not say anything about the Halifax figures??? Nothing about the BBC really shocks me anymore, but really, wtf? I bet if it was a positive figure they would have reported it. :angry: :angry:

I have no idea, but you're probably right... it appears to be built on a rock rather than sand (or whatever it is that erodes in places)

Wow, that looks amazing! If I wasn't worried about coastal erosion, I could see myself living somewhere like that Oh and if I could afford 1.25 mill

I like going to my local blockbusters to rent films. Browsing an Internet catalogue is not the same as looking at the physical cases IMO, and also waiting for a film to be delivered is useless, because I rent them when I'm bored at home, and I prefer picking it up there and then, not waiting for royal mail to get the film to me. I probably rent about 5-6 movies a month from them at the moment, and I'll be sad to see them go (if they do).

It is, yes.

So we had a large up tick early in 2010, all of which have now been reversed, and we're heading into winter. I wonder what the derivative of the curve is, because the Halifax seems to think it's 0 when they say that they expect prices to remain flat over the whole of 2010 I'd say 4-5% down as a whole over 2010, which isn't really bad considering house prices were rising rapidly at the beginning of the year.

I can't believe you lot are on here arguing about this kind of crap. Why on earth would I want to inherit something from my parents? I tell them both to spend every single penny, I can work for my own money, thank you very much! Yes, it sucks being 30 and renting, but guys, look at the state of the market, it's correcting, so chill out for a wee while yet, and stop your whinging. Life is unfair, and it always has been, so get over it and make the best of your situation. Now where did I put my asbestos underwear?

Hmm, maybe not... for example, a FTB buying a 175k "property" with a 35k deposit (i.e. 140k outstanding) can get a fixed 2 year deal from ING Direct for 3.7%, which will cost about 431 quid a month in interest payments. Assuming a wage of 40k, which is a take home of 2460 per month, it works out as 17.5%.

13% of FTB income for interest? That sounds incredibly low to me... Home owners stuck on a variable or tracker paying 10% I can believe, but current first time buyers at 13% when a typical mortgage rate will be somewhere close to 5%. Perhaps they're talking about the interest on credit cards and overdrafts...

You couldn't make it up! Good find, but of course the media will ignore it :angry:

Quite - why aim for mediocrity?