daves mum

Hi All I'm trying and failling to calculate whether it would be cheaper to rent, save, and invest my current deposit, or buy a house with a mortgage over 25 years. However, after a day at work, my brain isn't working.... Lets assume a deposit of 30k, and 6k per year going into saving. If I could get 10% return on investment (optimistic I know), would this be better than taking out a 25 year mortgage with an assumed 6% interest rate? What would a reasonable annual rate of HPI inflation to assume over this 25 year period? 3%, 5%???! As I said, I'm having a brain freeze, and can't see the wood for the trees.... any help appreciated. Cheers DM

They were discussing the british obsession with home ownership, and it pretty much ended up being a chat about high house prices. It was presented by Kate Silverton who is actually in favour of lower house prices, and she did say she was pleased to hear the news from Nationwide that house prices are down this week. All in all it was actually pretty good for the BBC, there was a guy who STR a couple of years back and is now regretting it (he lives in London). The same guy actually said 'how on earth are normal people able to afford a house nowadays?', which is quite a simple and refreshing question to be heard on the BBC. You can hear it here, it starts at 1hr21min: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t9qr1/Kate_Silverton_01_08_2010/

As per title

I spotted this whilst doing my usual Rightmove search: Rightmove price changes Property came onto the market 18 March 2009 @ 160k. The price then increased to 185k, no doubt due to all of the media spin. The price has now dropped back to 160k, so the seller has achieved nothing since March 2009, and has probably missed any chance of selling for 160k. I remember seeing the price increase on this property last year, and thinking how greedy the owner must be. Seeing this reduction today has cheered me up no end. I still wouldn't buy it though.... horrible little shoe box!!

This was the first item on Midlands Today at 6:30 this evening, as part of a bigger piece where they were trying to ramp the housing market. They even had the head of the national association of estate agents talking about how an increase in CGT could cause a flood of properties onto the market, which would somehow be a bad thing There was also the classic line of 'a first time buyer buying this house for 240k would pay no stamp duty', Yeah that's right, most FTB's in Sutton Coldfield have 240k to spend on a house.......

Has anybody on here heard back from their MP after sending a letter to campaign for the CGT increase? My conservative MP replied within a week. His response was..... ".... As you rightly point out, the coalition agreement calls for a substantial increase on Capital Gains Tax for non business assets. I believe that this change should include a taper relief system to help incentivise those who hold assets for the long term". This looks like a step in the right direction to me, shame about the taper relief though!

Cheers Bloo Loo and Tired of Waiting Reading this forum has certainly opened my eyes, and I must admit I may have been tempted to buy during the bull trap if I hadn't known better. The thing that made me look for the HPC website in the first place was when I realised that I would never have a hope of buying my parents home, or any on the street they live in, in what can only be described as an average area, despite the fact that I earn above national average (and most likely local) wages. The other thing that always used to puzzle me was the cars I would see on the motorway on my commute to work.... the average car is a BMW or Audi, whereas 15 or so years ago the average would be a Ford Escort - where did all this extra money to afford this suddenly come from???

Hi All My name is Ian, I have been lurking on this site for 2+ years. I'm waiting for the crash so I can become a FTB, but don't want to spend my life paying stupid money for a horrible little barratt style box..... Bring on the crash!

Ok this thread has prompted me to sign up after 2+ years of lurking....