Sad thing is that the 'Trolls' have been right so far, and will continue to be right for a while yet.
The market here in West London (Ealing) is still red hot. There is no crash or slowdown here.
Are these the stats for *new* mortgage lending? Blimey, didn't realise it was this high. Where did you get this statistic from?
But interest rates haved been much lower than when 3.5x multiple was the norm (i.e early 90's).
IMO this 3.5 argument is a complete nonsense. You have to look at the overall affordabilty picture.
An excellent point there CO.
Not everyone homeowner is on a 6x IO mortgage with addtional huge amounts of unsecured debt. (However many time RealistBore bangs on about debt ceilings! )
You're right in the fact that the recent BoE IR rises appear to have had little effect on consumer spending. (Well upto Xmas anyway)
I'm not sure about the insolvency figures though. I appreciate the numbers are up. But isn't this just a load of numpties taking the IVA route?
A very interesting article. It's looking like the IR cycle is at / near the peak.
Hope so. But offering an opinion that differs from the HPC mantra usually upsets the 'wishful thinking' bears.
But that ain't gonna happen. More wishful thinking!
I don't think prices will continue to rise at the levels we've seen - but there is no reason for a crash. (Certainly not at the level you expect wish for)