Bear Faced Cheek

Hey there - thanks for the nice replies. New job has a nice salary and is enough to live happily on (and continue to save rather than waste it on mortgage interest!) and so it's just this lump sum I need to do something with...

Hello HPCers My situation in a series of bullet points... Private sector worker Renter (largely due to years of looking at this site!) Just been made redundant (weep not, fellow HPCers, I asked for voluntary redundancy) New job lined up. Sorted. Now, my issue is this. I have £50k from savings and the redundancy pay off. Naturally, Mrs. BFC sees this through her 'nesting filter sunglasses' as being a deposit. Fear not, fellow HPCers, I'm staying strong. Annoyed at what banks offer in terms of interest rates, worried about shares (unless you include shorting!) and with uber fears about the gold stuff, I was wondering what you'd all suggest I do with it? I have no intention of buying for years, which may affect your answers. Thanks in advance BFC

One of the things I like about this site is that it's the only place I can read instant reaction on housing news. That got me wondering.... On t'internet, is there a website with the *opposite* perspective on the news? A sort of housepricerise.co.uk or vestedinterests.org? Would be interesting to read their bleatings this morning...

Forex have a prediction of + 0.7. Now I know these monthly figures don't mean much to those intelligent enough to look at the wider picture, but sentiment is reality (and all that). Any thoughts on this week's figures? Predictions? Views?

Oh no! I just made a lovely chart showing these figures, but can't upload it from this pc! Argh! Anyone fancy getting it in an email and posting it for me? Mail me at firstquery@hotmail.co.uk

Update: Had a (very reasonable) response from the Beeb. Any thoughts on what I could say in reply...? Dear Peter Many thanks for your e-mail. You make a valid point: various figures could be chosen to lead the story on mortgage data from the BBA. In general, we consider each new publication of data separately, choosing what we consider to be the relevant facts and the issues or figures that will be of interest to our readers. In this case, the annual figure (81%) was a notable jump and interesting enough to lead the story. However, the BBA's caveat - that this figure was, in part, a consequence of the state of the mortgage market a year ago - is made extremely prominently in the story i.e. the second paragraph. The month-on-month change is covered in the third paragraph. There was wide discussion in the BBC business unit about these figures, and we welcome the input from readers. I can assure you that we receive the data directly from the BBA and use it to produce our own report, without reference to any Reuters news release. The same is true of all housing data we report. Regards Tim Weber Business editor

I've also complained: Hi News Website Feedback I'm shocked at your reporting of this month's BBA Mortgage Approvals. Your headline: 'Mortgage approvals up 81% in year' is just poached from the Reuters news release: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE58M1DI20090923 I don't mind that so much (I've worked in a newsroom before and know how these things work), it's rather that there has been a *drop* this month, against market expectations of a rise: http://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php and yet you highlight the positive *annual* change. This is made worse by the fact that when you reported this story last month, you reported on the monthly change: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8219710.stm Can you please explain the editorial stance on this? Is it 'report on monthly change if it's positive but annual figures if it the monthly change is negative'? Kind regards Peter

Must confess that I'm annoyed by this. Behold, another month of the muppets I work with mocking me and me sitting there silently fuming. I know all the arguments about small movements, buying season, low transaction levels, etc. etc. but why oh why aren't we seeing drops? {weeps}

Exactly. If they were intelligent, they'd all think I was a property market genius, rather than scowling like the posh woman from Drop The Dead Donkey... Seriously, the point being that they are all in complete denial about the house price crash. I was, just this second, 'informed' that with bank interest rates so low, the *only* investment worth making is buying a new house. No, really. I despair. As I mentioned earlier, I do enjoy this forum (and not so secretly enjoy housing data coming out each month) but the sickening fog of bull guff that surrounds me at work (oh, and in the pub with my friends) makes me choke. Every day. Yours in despair BFC

Nope, it's a bank in The City, but (and this is my point) no-one here earns more than, ooh, 60k a year yet they still 'upgrade' and stretch themselves and think that this is the perfect time to buy. It's not an immunity-to-financial-concern thing, it's an immunity-to-common-sense thing. Anyway, I come in peace and just genuinely wanted to find out how people were reacting to the nonsensical arguments that I have to deal with every day. I'm probably just looking for some bear-hugs. Care bears care and all that...

So, I'm sitting at work in the office and I am surrounded by bulls. People bidding £750,000 for London houses but then losing out in sealed bids against half a dozen people. It's like The Telegraph 'Tis The Season To Be Jolly' piece. Er, but in real life. I've gently suggested that buying a house at the moment isn't a particularly good idea, but their eyes glare back in horror as if I've just tried to convert them to satanism I've been addicted to this site for years, but this is my first ever post - I feel compelled to write this as I just got shouted down by my whole team, stating the following: 1) The media 'love negativity', that's all this is 2) 'No-one knows' what's going on with pwoperdy prices 3) 'Good' houses have completely retained their 2007 values 4) I should stop talking down the market 5) If a million more people than normal are unemployed, so what? There's still millions and millions employed! 6) Only new build flats are bringing prices down etc. etc. etc. Question (since I'm starting to go insane here): despite everything that we know, are there enough sheeple out there for house prices to retain their 2007 'value'? Also, would be interested to hear of your stories about friends/colleagues/family who are also spouting this, ahem, bull.

LOL!