crashvilleboomtown

Mortgage lending isnt really that irresponsible you know guys. you get overexcited and feed on the media spin when it suits you. if you look at Northern Rock, Abbey , all the ones you cirtisie, you have to have a whacking great deposit of 25% and a large income to qualify for the 4.5- 5x malarkey. people with low deposits don't get this. Mortgage lending here is very tightly controlled. Similarly with self cert mortgages , you need a 15% deposit at least before they consider you. And if you are putting down 30k for a 200k house, then i would agree with the bank that you are reasonably responsible to deserve a loan if you have saved this much. if you lie or have borrowed the money from elsewhere you are committing mortgage fraud and can be jailed for this whether or not you default on payments. there are many cases of this happening. any system is open to abuse but please dont try to suggest that banks are just throwing around as much money as anyone asks them for, it really isnt like that and please dont get carried away by your own hyperbole.

you forget the economy is doing rather well, employment is still high, mortgage rates are quite low and there is now much more positive news coming out of the states. people expecting a stock market type crash on property are gonna be disappointed.

no its going to be milder than average (check met office website) and the new gas pipelines just opened mean there won't be shortages. crash postponed! (again)

god that quote from John Reid is scary. has he been taking lessons in saying sinister things from Michael Howard or something?! Are you thinking what i'm thinking?

i know. there are so many people who take their cues from TV and get swept up in the emotion of the auction , it actually takes real skill. the sheeple have invaded the auction room! you need to go to loads and watch very carefully, get a feel, before you even put your hand up. but that doesn't stop the numptys flashing their money like they're Aabramovitch. the chances of getting good deals at auctions at the moment are lower than they have been for years. you can still if canny, but real opportuinities few and far between. sad.

this is true. in markets like this there are loads of special purchasers, big crowds at auctions desperate to spend their cash, and a lot of people are paying over the top , really not many bargains to be had right now except for complete dogs needing total gutting and even those are flying still it seems.

its true. people romantisise Australia and NZ but there's a great deal of small minded prejudice out there, just like here. Particularly in NZ it shares the same "tall poppy" syndrome that we do here, they love knocking people that have done well and its really not that much of an entreprenuerial or dynamic place. people make do and are inventive, but because they have to be. overall though not exciting and the women in particular are witches.

hmmmm people have been predicting a crash since the turn of the Millenium. I reckon nothing will happen until 2009.

why does this kind of comment get posted every day ?

oh yes i forgot, dirty immigrants bringing in their diseases again. its only natural that TB has come in with all these people, but more at fault was the government abandoing the compulsory vaccination programme. we won't be drowning in our own blood - dont exaggerate - mild antibiotics now see off even very bad cases today and with the reinstatement of vaccination in schools - god knows why they stopped it mind you - the TB "problem" such as it is will soon be over. everything comes back to immigration with you, where do you live?

No this is wrong - actually it is a vey traditionally English characteristic to run the country down and say "Its gone to the dogs" & people have been doing this since time immemorial . I think some of the posters on here are either clinically depressed or have got runaway-hyperbole-syndrome or something. Most places are not the unremitting hell holes described here. When half the world goes to sleep hungry, lives in shacks or faces justice down the barrel of a gun on a daily basis our problems seem quite small. Run the country down if you will, emigrate to another country and be one of the immigrants you moan about here and see the other side . I came across an old Victorian magazine dated around 1890 not long ago filled with articles bemoaning the commercialisation of Christmas and such . It seems little changes . As an expat be happy with your life but don't believe a) the British Press who are in my opinion probably the most depressive and negative of any in the world ; don't believe most of what you read, it is entertainment and tiliitation not real fact, sentiments of people who merelyh reinforce your opinions / justifications of why you left and how you made the right decision c) anything anyone British says in November when the clocks have gone back. Its very depressing anyway this time of year!

yes, RB - you can't have it all, dude! and, RB , you forgot to paste this quote from the article... Yet one of the most remarkable aspects of the market recovery since 2003 has been the ability of companies to consistently beat expectations. An increasingly frequent comparison is with 1995 when, just like today, the US economy slowed after a period of interest rate tightening only to take off again after a mid-cycle pause for breath. What happened to profits and markets in the five years that followed shows how expensive it can be to bet against the bulls. The outlook is far from clear. You make some valid points but you must accept there is uncertainty as to what's going to happen rather than be the most uber bear in the world. That's not "realist"ic is it?

Eurozone looking nice and healthy and accelerating into 2007 though..... http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/11/02...reut/index.html its not all doom and gloom!