TT9

This is excellent stuff. Would you mind chaning the colour of the profit values, to green perhaps, to seperate from the red loss amounts to ease quickly browsing through. . . ?

Well, anecdotally, the folks have had their Darras Hall place on the market for coming up to 9 mnths now. If anyone knows the area, it's a short walk from the Broadway shops next to the Junior school. There's been a few nibbles at it and one what looked like a good offer but it's all SSTC with the inevitable mortgage fall through for would be buyer. My folks are downsizing to place called Ovington, a nearby ish village. Interesting also, that my parents were worried that would be sellers in Ovington would grow impatient and re-list their own place, but they were frank with my dad that he was the only interest they had and didn't hold hope of attracting any new interest. They've lost most of their enthusiasm for the move now and are resigned to the odd viewing once in a fortnight they get which my dad describes as 'tyre kickers'. The hope and excitement of being in by Christmas gone seems a long time ago for them now. In fact, if this ever goes through to completion I'll post the sale/offer/HPI numbers for my dad's places.

Sky Business now leading with: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1309339,00.html

Bear trading down about 50% at the minute. . . .

Despite my bear sided opinions, I do think that prime London is a detached market and will never suffer the sort of falls we can expect elsewhere, if any. I can offer a small anecdote which is the g/f, 33 and very hardworking professional, bought a little maisonette thing 2005. Top floor is an open plan living/kitchen area, seperate bathroom. Downstairs leads to two decent sizes bedrooms and a second bathroom. It's a small property. She paid over £600k in early 2005 as a FTB. It's in the Marylebone area, about a 5-10 minute walk behind Selfridges. Recently had it valued as she had the means to pay off the mortgage and was exploring all options of early repayment/re-mortgage etc. Came in at £1m. The celing on the road of identi-houses is £825k accoring to nethouse prices which was made last year IIRC. My point is that this genuinely is an area of affluent foreign buyers (and Oasis rockers), and a shortage that will never meet demand. The prices may seem startling but purchase round these parts are cash deals in the full or large part, not your typical NR 125% morgage! She was asking my thoughts about the turning of the housing sentiment and what this means (knowing I browse these sort of boards), yet despite my bearish stance my advice to her was to NOT sell this place. I just can't see prime central London ever having the tailoff in demand because there are just so many want-to-be-buyers national and foreign of high net worth that the economic indicators and credit crunches and everything else that we talk about does not affect these sort of people enough. Her place will provide security for her for the rest of her life, including a decent monthly income (today could fetch £4000p/m gross rental) should she decide to relocate to a more peaceful and quieter way of existance. So I'm bearish but to the point that I think there are many localised markets within one, and falls will range from a bloodbath (non London inner city blocks), lesser but substantial falls (surburban areas), to areas largely unnafected (Westminster, Kensington etc.). What does anyone else think re. London ? Thanks.

The Travel sector is a complete bloodbath. I have worked in this industry for over 5 yrs now, may of my peers being 15+ yr veterens, never have we seen anything like this before. To a man, everyone in our office of 350+ employees has a 'plan B' of some sort. Its ugly guys. Check out these latest windups in the travel sector. Just how many in September ? http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?category...amp;pagetype=87

You are right. We live in a world of moderation and censorship. Still, our time is coming soon. POWER TO THE SAVER.

Had to reply to the MSE thread and echo said sentiments from here. Its a bit hard hitting but feel better for it. Go on, everyone log in and thank me for it . . . . heh heh

I'm not reading anything into these sort of statements and sentiment anymore, whichever way they are pointing. The fact is that for any credibility we need to know a level of detail lower than the headlines. It is just too easy to skew statistics. Take this simple scenario: Let's say that NO FTB's bought a house in an area because prices had reached utter astronomical idiocy, this would be very bad and have to be eventually followed by a downturn in prices, but month on month immediately you would see rises of £50k plus or something. Why ? - because the only houses traded are those are toward the very top price bracket. There was a statement last week that average prices had risen £75k in Kensington or something for the month. £75k ? Do me a favour. There is no way even in todays kite market that Bob buys an average house 1st Aug and then his place is worth +75k 1st Septmeber. It's just misguiding people. Better to take a 3-6mnth moving average and factor in personal experiences and anecdotals. Here's mine: I have recently moved (4wks ago) back to the South Suburbs of London. Rent only. So I find a big place, converted Victorian place etc., but its awful. Needs refurbishing. LL want's £800 a month, so I come in at 1 offer only £600 and I'll give it a lick of paint and bat it into shape for him. He refuses. 'Won't budge says the EA.' Ok, fine turn attention elsewhere, find an equally crap place in no time, (so bad only Choices - the S***est London EA will market it), play the lick of paint card again, and its all agreed. Renting Greater London, big flat £550 a month. Spent £600 at B&Q and a weekend or two of my own time, and its in a good liveable condition again. Flat originally marketed for £750 so its a win/win all round. Anyway, call from EA last week saying LL has agreed my £600 a month, 'As long as I make a good job of the decorating'. WTF ?? This was 6wks ago - where does he think I've been living for all this time ? His place is still vacant, still trying to Let it, oh and sell it as well. Do anything, just get rid of it. This guy will be a casualty. So whatever rightmove say or this EA says, back in the real world, where I exist, there are plenty good value rental opportunities, and dare I say it, purchase opportunities I am sure too. Prices +/-£6k per month say this website or that EA, I don't read too much into it. I do understand the marco economics of where we are heading however, and I don't think its going to be pretty. I've settled all my credit and am preparing for the cold sharp winter beginning early next year. Regards.

Indeed how right you were RB. . . . . . I am pleased to be able to share with the community that the TT9 house fund made a little over £34K today Everything coming through on the news wires since the weekend suggested we were on for more falls early this week. So on Sunday my Contracts For Difference shorts went: xxx399 11/06/06 22:13:42 Sell 10 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5607 Accepted xxx395 11/06/06 22:13:16 Sell 50 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5607 Accepted xxx394 11/06/06 22:13:10 Sell 50 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5607 Accepted xxx393 11/06/06 22:13:02 Sell 50 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5607 Accepted xxx392 11/06/06 22:12:54 Sell 50 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5607 Accepted And today: xxx046 13/06/06 12:55:30 Buy 60 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5479 Accepted xxx045 13/06/06 12:55:22 Buy 200 FTSE 100 CFDs at 5479 Accepted Now I wouldn't normally make as big exposure on leveraged trading instruments but with all this news coming through I chanced the call that this was too good an opportunity to refuse. So the message to all is take advantage of the climate we are in, even the falling markets offer great opportunities for the careful to invest those house deposit funds. I agree with RB switching his equities to cash, but lets not forget what other instruments are on offer to excite. Property is not doing it at the minute that's for sure. . . . . Best TT9

What happens in a falling market ? Do I still take up my option to buy ?

Hello Everybody, I have silently been reading these postings for the better part of a year now, usually checkin everyday see what the gossip is. So here is a bit about myself: I live in Cobham Surrey, 31 yrs of age and renting a lovely 3 bedroom cottage for cheaper than my IO mortgage would be costing me. My g/f and I are above average earners, have around £120k cash on deposit, and bring in about £150k between us. We are both FTB's and although our price bracket thankfully stretches beyond the flat above the kebab shop , nevertheless we don't want to commit our savings and livelihood for exactly the same reason as the rest of you FTB's , STR's etc. I am firmly a market bear and persuaded the g/f to our side of the fence too. Its not without pain mind you, every once in a while I catch here browsing through the freebie property papers that drop through the door looking for a 'barn we can do up' and the like. But I'm winning the war and she understands that it doesn't matter but the economics of house price inflation, irrespective of your price bracket, can affect us all. Anyway, now I've registered I'll add something to the debates when I can. TT9. Oh, my favourite posters are RealistBear, Red Baron, DrBubb, and for a balanced debate TTRTR