rantnrave

I was 99% certain this was you - well done. You (and others from here) were running circles round some new EA posters at the start. Some seriously qualified dude even congratulated you for speaking the most sense there. Six months ago, any HPCer posting over there would have been rounded on pretty quickly. Some more respectfully expressed HPC views have at least won us a hearing. I'm hoping the stage will come when EAs there will break ranks and support some of the HPC comments, rather than agreeing silently. Yesterday I challenged one poster who said he couldn't secure enough stock and property was flying off the shelf to say where he was - the answer, unsurprisingly, was West Essex. Why does a HPCer have to challenge the views of someone from one of the only regions where prices are still going up? As we know, many EAs elsewhere are experiencing the opposite, but are reluctant to post it when someone suggests otherwise.

A couple of identical properties I am watching which are literally next door makes for some interesting research. Exhibit A started nine months ago at 140K Exhibit B arrived two months after at 135K In January Exhibit A dropped to 135K The following day, Exhibit B dropped to 130K I've just noticed one of them has dropped to 127.5K. I thought it was B, being keener to get a sale, but it's A that has dropped 7.5K. B will respond very soon I reckon! Bet they have some interesting conversations over the garden fence lol!

We're inching toward the capitulation stage...

No-one can accuse the media of talking this country back into recession, that's for sure.

Stripping out the seasonal adjustment, it was actually up.

Come on HPC ladies - tell us the answer!

Except I still get a negative real rate on my savings and have to pay the higher fuel bills etc too - all for being prudent and not lying about my income on a mortgage application form.

Could you be more specific re location - Shrops is a big place. Am here too, so just curious.

From the article... Buy-to-let investors used to refer to their properties as their pensions. My friend doesn't refer to his as his pension any more. No. After a couple of years of trying to dump it and its hideously negative yields, he calls it an "accursed millstone."

Herein lies the weakness of the show and probably why it grates us here so much. At the end of the programme it would be great to supply a one or two sentence update on what has happened to the properties featured since the show was made. This would no doubt put a lot more people off the idea in the first place, which is of course why they will never do it.

Do you have a link to that episode

Watched it the other day and in two of three stories the presenters harped on about being careful not to overpsend on renovations because there was a limit to the prices of similar property. Have never ever heard them say anything like that, let alone twice.

At what point did we pass the stage that a HPC would be so bad as to affect the majority rather than the minority?

Does the fact that IRs have gone up in Europe to fight inflation make it a foregone conclusion that ours will go up soon for the same reason?

Another quarter of GDP growth +0.5% or more and it would be much more likely. TBH, an IR rise in May was scuppered as soon as the negative GDP figure emerged in Feb. The markets seem to think an IR hike is coming too. Pound pretty much up across the board.

No wonder they scream when one of their largest (perceived) sources of wealth is going down in price every month. No mention in the article about the amount of money they are having to hand out to kids to get them out of the family property and into one of their own. No govt bailout for the BoMaD BTW!

So let's reflect a moment here - the most likely month for an IR hike and Sentance's last vote is the only month in recent times when inflation falls. No coincidence there then...

Much appreciated! This highlights sellers' refusal to lower asking prices as actual sold prices decline.

I'm thinking a lower number too, re the lack of an IR hike at this month's much-expected meeting.

Any way to correlate this with YoY change in HPs? I think I can almost see the deadcat bounce in the chart too.

What would you say...? Just received a newsletter from two councillors in my area who, amongst numerous well-meaning deeds in the report, are patting themselves on the back for trying to use council money to buy newbuilds at a cheaper price to assist FTBs. I'm planning to email them and voice my frustration as a priced-out FTB that money is being thrown at the Ponzi scheme and prices should not be propped up with council funds. Any one else got any other comments / thoughts I could include?

Sounds very familiar... We're in rural Shrops. Many might consider us fortunate - countryside, cheaper cost of living etc. There are pros and cons, for sure. We've found it hard to get to know others well - we're mid 30s and the community here is skewed toward the 55s and older. People are friendly but we lack that spirit of having something in common with others that results from being of a similar age / stage in life. IMO that is hard to replace. If I was 20 years older, I might find it easier. Working in the NGO / charity sector, about half of the jobs I can apply for are in London. This sector is poorly paid at the best of times. There are serious vacancies for experienced personnel, uni background etc for 23K in central London. No chance. The blurb for those posts these days even seems to be targeted more towards a second income earner in the house rather than the main one. I need to turn my experiences into more responsibilities - I'm not money-driven, but I can do my job quite easily and am starting to get bored with it. No chance of promotion where I am whatsoever, so I need to look elsewhere. The tough job market and dominance of vacancies in London with salaries that will barely cover rent down there is making me very frustrated.

Did you rule out Japan?

Been there, done that etc. I can't understand the attraction. The locals' sheer lack of inflexibility drove me potty. We lived in an apartment block of six flats. We had rotas and duties for everything - when we could use the communal washing line, washing the property's shared wheelie bins and shovelling snow outside when appropriate. In theory it sounds like people being required to be responsible citizens, which we have lost to some extent in this country. In reality, the system is very inflexible. I cleaned the house stairs on a Friday not a Saturday (I was going away that weekend) and got a lecture from the Hausmeisterin who was responsible for the rotas. She really did think I shouldn't have made plans to be away from the building when I was scheduled for duties and made that quite clear. And on it went with unfriendly train staff, sales assistants etc. Step outside of the system for a second and expect to be given some serious grief.

My nomination for post of the day on this subject - taken from the EA site of all places!