Prof

Can`t disagree with any of this Hamish. Looks like it`s the banks who are the real winners out of the property market. I`m glad I don`t owe `em any money. Hang on, they owe me money..... I`m a taxpayer !

How dare you wish for such a thing. Please get back into the queue marked "lifetime of debt".

So, apart from those things, house prices can only go up. Fair enough, can`t argue with that. Now the big question. Is this HPI a good thing ? Another thing that puzzles me, is how can any fair-minded human being want HPI to return at this point ? If there is some long term, sustainable benefit to the population, I`d welcome it. My overall thought is that HPI can cause a fair amount of hardship, sucks real wealth away from those that take on a mortgage, and simply line the pockets of EAs and the financial industry. Who knows, a property boom could even lead to the demise of a few financial institutions (far fetched, I know). Also, more than a few MPs have been benefiting from HPI, which must be a concern as they are the few people that have powers to actually prevent excessive HPI in the first place. A turkey wouldn`t vote for christmas, and I`m sure that an MP wouldn`t vote for stronger rules on lax lending and "dodgy" mortgages. Well, a few have now been making noises about tighter controls on the banks etc - only because we were on the brink of a total financial meltdown. Like many property bulls, the MPs can only think of themselves, as long as they are doing OK, why should they care about anyone else ? Obviously, it`s human nature to be slightly greedy, and look after oneself first and foremost. However, in a developed country, such as the UK, isn`t it about time that we started to make a real effort to make life better for everyone, instead of encouraging each other to take on more and more debt ? That`s what the bulls want, more debt for others. That`s what a lot of homeowners want, ever higher prices, so they can feel a bit better off. If you want to "get ahead", work hard, invest in other people/businesses. Indeed, investment in property isn`t always a bad thing, but when "liar loans", MPs "flipping", 6 x salary mortgages, IO mortgages, media ramping etc starts to happen, the whole thing gets out of hand. For proof of this, see Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley etc. Rant over, The sunshine beckons.

Obviously not. Just like Sibley, what a nice man you must be. Not. Hang on, if you don`t care, why bother arguing with those of us that do ? Sure ? Absolutely sure ?

Nice. I think it`s your family that should be worried about you. Your kids must love you, wishing higher mortgages for them in later life.

Mr Monk, you are correct. No bull answers that question, because deep down they know that HPI isn`t a good thing*. * If we had a general requirement of 3.5x salary lending to buy a decent house and a stable financial system, then HPI of around average wage price inflation would be fair enough.

Wait a second, Hamish has entered the building. Maybe he`ll have a go.

AT THE MOMENT May I also add that we seem to have very high levels of personal and government debt ? Sorry to P on your firework.

If you get an answer, I doubt it will make sense.

Not me pal. I`m a homeowner (and that`s a real homeowner, not someone with a mortgage). Woopee do, the theoretical value of my home has gone up by about 1% last month. Big deal. I know I was "lucky" to buy before the current boom, not long after the end of the last crash. I had to wait until I could afford a place. It wasn`t some brilliant financial decision. It wasn`t to make money. It was somewhere to stay dry and warm, end enjoy my leisure time. Some of us have morals and a sense of fair play. I want others to share the same "luck" that I had. As far as I see it, todays news from Nationwide will only be good news for the greedy and short sighted idiots who worship the god of HPI. You have to be quite thick and selfish to think that HPI is a good thing. You can taunt and attempt to wind us up as much as you like, but it simply proves how selfish you are. It wouldn`t be so bad if you were simply predicting HPI with decent reasoning to back it up, but you seem to revel in rising house prices. Sad, really. Still, you`re setting youself up for a nice big wedge of humble pie, if what should, and probably will happen, happens. Enjoy your unearned "wealth" while it lasts.

^ Good words.

Surely not !

"Mini" is the important word here.

Another thing, on BBC breakfast news, the Nationwide figures make 2nd top story. I don`t seem to remember the figure being so "important" when the figures were negative. In fact, I`m sure that the negative figure was ignored for a month or two.

While the figure seems odd in a crash, the increase of 1.2% from Nationwide can be explained. A reason they give for the rise is limited supply. To check this out, I`ve just rightmoved my local area. 3 bed semis under £200k have nearly halved in availability since 12-18 months ago. Maybe potential vendors are not putting their property on the market, as they realise that A. it will take ages to sell, and B. they won`t achieve 2007 prices. Now, going forward, what will solve this problem ? IF prices continue to rise at the current rate, in 12 months time more sellers might return to the market and we`ll be back into "boom" territory. I think the problem will be that unless unemployment falls, wages start to rise, lenders start flashing the cash and interest rates don`t rise, any upturn will come to an abrupt end. Stay strong bears, circumstances still favour further falls.

This post worries me.

Awwwwwwww riiiight ! Funny, the public are now after Mp`s blood, now the HPI gravy train has been derailed. I`m no fan of Mp`s who used the system (that they created), but neither am I of the sheeple who voted for them (and then revelled in the system that they created). Gigiddy !

Pythons, kernels, webforumbeans, gui frameworks, procedural projects.......... I`ll be back in 12 months time when i`ve sussed Java. IMO, 1 or 2 computer programming languages should be enough for most applications. What`s wrong with "Print ......" to put something onto the screen ? Too much reinventing of the wheel, if you ask me.

I`m a "geek", I admit it. However, I don`t think I`m a very good "geek" (by modern standards). Some of the tecky talk on this thread is too much for me. I`m trying to teach myself JAVA at the moment. It seems that it`s as full of cwap as the UK property market. I`m an "old school" programmer. I`ve dabbled is assembler on the old Commodore Amiga, BBC Micro and even the ZX81. Those were the days. A simple development package and a simple way of writing code. Now we have objects, classes, JRE, Swings, Enums and all sorts of stuff that seems surplus to requirements. I taught myself a fair amount of the inner workings of the Amiga in a matter of weeks. I reckon it would take me just as long to learn how to use NetBeans properly. Seems to me that like the tax system, too much has been added to the system for it`s own good.

Oh no, not again. Please stop making me laff so much ! (The "c0ck shaped recovery" post was top notch, BTW)

I do apologise, but I get days like this.

I was asking about Gary`s place. Don`t buy it off him directly. When it goes up for sale, tease him with a "derisory" offer. Wait until he gets repo`ed, then buy it at the auction. You might want to send him a letter of thanks, once you`ve got the keys. ^ Please let that happen.

He "gets it". A lot of hpc members could also see the boom for what it was. The UK public were like Pitbulls fighting each other, while the government/banks just egged them on. Now, even those that didn`t get involved in the fight are having to pay the Vet`s bill. Blimey, I`m on form today. Too much coffee, I think.

Fair play. Has it been repossessed yet ? Ive been waiting for stories like yours..... Potential buyer makes a low, but realistic offer given the circumstances. EA laughs at offer. 6-12 months later, the "low" offer looks more than reasonable. Cheered me up, that has.

Yeh, "smell my cheese, you mother", as a certain A.Partridge once said. Looks like your offer was more than reasonable.