marzipan

what the **** is a 'mini-boom'???!?? its either a boom or not a boom!! if prices fall by single digit percents are they going to call it a 'mini-crash'??!? I don't think so!! probably a 'reverse-boom' or even better, a 'slow-down' !!! !

Meanwhile the owner of Poundstretcher announces a RISE in sales http://www.moneyweek.com/file/16947/instor...ales-up-73.html a sign that the struggling over indebted consumer is tightening her purse strings??

hmm thats strange.. Japans an island with finite amount of land for building new houses... and they have had low (zero) interest rates for a long time now. but I thought those were two of the main reasons why house prices in the UK will never fall?!?!? shock horror .. maybe theres a chance that, no I can't believe it... house prices CAN fall!!! who would have thought it?!??!

oops looks like the bbc have denied our 'right to reply' 'Have Your Say service not available This Have Your Say service is currently unavailable. We are doing some essential software maintenance. '

When a house is reposessed it's usually because the owner has defaulted on a mortgage and the creditor wants to recover as much of their money as possible, but also as quickly as possible so they can then lend the money out to someone else. If the housing market is still very active, and an estate agent tells them they could shift the house at full market price within a few weeks, then they would obviously agree to this. Right now, this would still be the case. If house prices start to fall, then they will look to sell the property as quickly as possible to recover as much as they can. When the crash finally begins in the next few months, the rate of reposessions will soar.

I have noticed estate agents in my area (wimbledon) at work at 7 o'clock in the morning when I'm on my way to work! And again at 8-8.30 at night there are still EAs in the office. I walk past them everyday on the way to and from work and they never used to work so early or late. I assume most EAs rely on commission, so it seems they are having to work a lot harder to make some money.

what do you mean by 'other money lenders'??? this person sounds like a complete doughnut and deserves everything she gets

of course, every house is crash proof if you don't sell

has no one thought about the possibility that a lot of these people are not buyers, but in fact sellers checking out the competition, or just nosey homeowners wanting to see their neighbours houses.

not much of a recovery if just one ir rise can snuff it out!! so is this the end of the road for all those northern boom towns? manchester, glasgow etc have all boomed in recent years due to low interest rates. it seems that the low rates were not just helping to start the recovery for these towns, they are the only thing supporting the recovery. take away low interest rates and watch the north become grim again

why would russia back iran? russia is the second largest oil producer after saudi arabia, iran the fourth largest. russia would clearly benefit from a high oil price, and then when russia and america defeat iran, they could split the country between them like they did with Germany and Korea, after WW2 and then russia would be easily the largest oil producer in the world.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publication...ws/2006/078.htm

looks like they changed their minds http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5240770.stm 'Rates decision 'finely balanced' '

yeah.. and i was talking to a used car salesman last week - he can't believe how fast his cars are selling. he said that if I don't buy one soon, I won't ever be able to afford my own car!

i didn't, so does that mean I can complain?

the media don't care if they are right, they don't care if their predictions are wrong. they print stories that sell newspapers. simple as that. if punters like the headline, they buy the paper. next week everyone will have forgotten this weeks headlines. everyone likes to know that they will be millionaires in ten years time, it makes them feel good, so they buy the paper

and as oil supplies are running out and air fares rise ever higher, that place in the sun is going to get more costly to visit each year. and with warmer and longer summers in britain, there will be less chance of selling it on in the future or renting to holidaymakers.

you need to read up on asset bubbles - theres a book called 'extraordinary delusions and the madness of crowds' (or something like that). A bubble grows because everyone thinks its a 'no-brainer' - easy money. the herd doesn't even stop to think that prices could go down, let alone see any reason for a downturn. thats what makes a bubble so dangerous and why so many people lose so much money.

"Edmund Conway, the Daily Telegraph's Economics Editor, offers expert inside knowledge of the housing market" modest too!! ha ha!!

the council's not going to allow all those thousands of new build flats in the docklands lay empty for long. sooner or later the compulsory purchase orders will come in and the council tenants will move in. happened to a flat i was renting two years ago - the whole block was privately owned until the council forced them to hand it over - for less than market value - and all these freaks started moving in. in fact, most of the flats were occupied before the hand over, so it doesn't matter if the flats are empty or not.

hmm.. i seem to have logged on to the famous five chatroom toodle pip gang!

"The OEF concluded that... there would be nothing to stop the average house price climbing above £300,000. It noted that in more than 10% of local authority areas in England, average house prices were already more than 10 times local incomes." how can they have these two statements in the same paragraph???

"Victims of unscrupulous agents may be compensated under the proposals. " this is probably the real reason for regulating the EA's - it opens the doors to a flood of 'mis-selling' complaints when the crash comes. that way the government can pass the blame for the crash on the 'unscrupuolous' estate agents

wrong show - it was The Day Today "News from telly to belly!!"

not getting enough?