THE SAGE

C'mon guys a couple of people that make an admittedly bad property decision does not constitute a crash?

I got into a conversation with a work colleague this evening about the economy and house prices and we were of the same opinion on most areas (ie house price falls) but I came unstuck when I started talking about how the US dollar will affect UK and house prices. Can anybody simply spell out how a weak US dollar affects UK and it's implications for house prices? Help would be appreciated. Also thanks for comments last week re: my offer of £115k for £120k property. You will be glad to hear I have withdrawn offer.I am going to give it at least another 12 months before I even consider buying.Thanks guys.

Once the 3 x salary ratio starts to be manipulated you know it is time to start heading for the exit. The vested interests will fleece the fools who enter after this point and any naive ftb's but unfortunately they will learn the hard way.

I don't currently have any debt so therefore I don't slave away as much as someone with the 'average' 100k mortgage. The govt,employers etc. want wage slaves who will not complain and ask for higher wages. Remember most employees would rather shave all their hair off rather than ask for a pay rise.I am alright as I no longer have any hair.

This site is invaluable! Over time it will speed up the crash. A few regulars may remember a few days ago that I made an offer on a property. The property was £120k and I offered £115k.I was a muppet. The property was what I was looking for and for anybody that resides in the Midlands it was in the Aldridge area of Walsall. With regard to current prices in the area I do not think it was massively overpriced hence my offer but on reflection and from comments from regulars on site I have withdrawn offer. I believe I have made the right decision. I am now going to wait for another six months at least. It is very easy to get carried away when contemplating a house purchase. Even a sage can lose his head. I will now lie low for a while as my credibility is in tatters..............

Checked ourproperty.co.uk and property was bought 2 and a bit years ago for 85K.

ZZ your comments regarding the last crash are accurate and insightful. I was there and one bed flats are extremely difficult to sell in a downturn.

Thanks for all the comments. I agree that £115k was too close to the asking price but I thought being as the property has only gone on the market an offer of £105k was too low.I have been watching the road for a while and it is the first house that has gone up for sale for a while so it should be interesting to see what happens. Re; the suggestions about actually speaking to the vendor- I would not do this as I don't believe in personalising situations such as these and it makes things awkward if they do come back and accept my offer and I THEN LOWER MY OFFER!

That's what I have got in the back of my mind unless some mug actually offers them the asking price!

Viewed a two bed semi detatched house yesterday evening with large garden in suburb of Birmingham. Asking price is 120k and liked the property a lot and would require no work to be done to it.I decided to make an offer this morning of 115k as the house is in a good location and would need 50k mortgage. Although house has just gone on the market I expected offer to be accepted by the young couple who are selling.I am not in a chain. Offer rejected- vendor wants 118k and when I said to estate agent that 115k was generous in current market conditions she asked if I had seen reports of house price rises in the press recently. I said 115k is the offer and left it with them. Any thoughts?

In much the same way as somebody could record a record,buy all the records themselves,get to no.1 and proclaim themselves popstars and that they are the most popular things since sliced bread. This has never happened has it????

With all the speculation and wailing and knashing of teeth that goes on over a possible 1/4 % increase then it doesn't take a genius to work out that it may take only a further 1% increase from now to completely screw the housing market for years to come. I say it doesn't take a genius to work out the above but I forgot I was responding to Laurejon.

They don't use steel pipes anymore!!!

Yes I know it is futile trying to have a rational debate with someone such as laurejon but you cannot help yourself sometimes. So as bulls are constantlly making outrageous claims I will stick by my prediction of 40% fall in house prices by March 2006!

You keep your head because you will have already worked out how serious the problem is! That is why the majority of the contributors and viewers here realise the housing market is completely and utterly screwed and will keep their heads as they can sit back and have a beer while all the dinner party btl brigade get wekk and truly shafted!!!

So a roof over your head is better than common sense? Maybe we should stop trying to educate our young and just put them into 140k luxury flats and we will have solved all the nations problems? Oh I forgot put them into the flats at interest only mortgages of course because we know that prices are always going to rise don't we? You cannot go wrong with property can you?

Late on a Friday evening when everyone else are losing their heads zz is still there with the common sense. zz I salute you.

Thanks zz that's food for thought. My sister lives in Eire with her husband and bought in 1998 and even then prices were high compared to UK at that time. I think withdrawal from single currency would be a disaster for exactly the reasons you state so without interest rates as a tool they will have no option but to use tax raising measures to fight inflation.

Are 14 yr olds allowed to live in their own studio flats?

I saw them on telly a while ago in a drama called This Life.........

Good call zz I knew Irish prices were even higher than ours but I hadn't thought of the havoc negative interest rates would create. What do you think will be the outcome of this situation and what steps should be taken to address it?

Vested Intersts etc. have predicted that things will pick up in the Spring so unfortunately Spring isn't happening this year so we go straight to Summer when things are 'seasonally' quiet due to summer holidays then onto autumn when noone is buying as they are receiving credit card statements from hols then winter when they have got Christmas coming up. I have foreseen the excuses already!

Why should bullish stories be promoted on this site? That would be like posting good news stories on a suicide site!

Once we are in the territory of negative year on year stats is when the fun will start. How will they attempt to massage those figures?

Great post! My sister lives in Ireland and the credit/property boom is out of hand. It will all end in tears.