IOW-here-I-come!

Holy crap that chart is scary!!!!

Just to balance things out a little bit, if prices in my area returned to 2003 prices then YES! I would most definitely buy. However, unfortunately this is nowhere near to happening at the moment - places that I am interested in have not moved. At most we are back to late 2006 prices and even then people refuse to take offers of any sorts. Id say we are only looking at £3-4000 off at the moment on 130-180K houses. So another year of waiting for the truth to sink in for sellers for me regardless of what I would buy in at! IOW

Part of Godwins Law, you used to hear it a lot in the usenet years (back when geeks really ran the internet!) This page is pretty good... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

What you don't want to do is this.... http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-185...=4&tr_t=buy I have been watching the local houses that look like they are being "developed" for a few months, this has all the classic baby step drops.

Just to balance this all out.... Here is the latest from a seller in my area.... having not sold since Jan after repeatedly dropping the price he is trying a new tactic, increasing again!!! Rightmove link .... http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-185...=9&tr_t=buy

It's looking quite similar at the moment.. If not a bit steeper! (from the BBC article) Edit: spelling and reference.

Isn't this good news for HPC'ers though? Ok, its a shady practice, but surely now any other house put on the market in the same area will have its value tagged at around £115K? I know from previous sales of my own places that EA's look at other houses that have recently sold or been up for sale when doing their own valuations (in fact, in the last few years I wouldn't be suprised if that was all they did - except for adding 10%!) Even prospective buyers can look on rightmove or the local papers... Why would they pay £170K for somewhere when it now appears to be "worth" less.. This is effectively a huse drop now for anyone selling there £170K house, as they may only be worth £115-130K to the average buyer!

I have been looking in a similar area by the sounds of it... All I want is a reasonable victorian hillside place... the whole town is however innundated with modern 'development' properties that all look the same (shoddy!)... in St. Georges, Locking Castle, West Wick... it goes on an on and its driving me mad! I did notice something excellent a few weeks back however which is fun to share. In St. Georges opposite the new school a Barratts showroom and board went up and sat there for 6 months. One day, it totally vanished. Board, fencing and showroom all gone...

It still suprises me when somewhere you know pops up on the internet, especially a small place like Weston... Anyway, back to the point.. Weston does seem to be swamped(!!) with for sale signs at the moment, although personally i have noticed that alot of 'solds' have also creeped up too on place that have been sat for a while.. One thing that is frustrating, is the prices just ARE NOT coming down... at all. I will check in the papers each week but each week they seem to detach more and more from the country. Prices in the UK may have gone down 2.5% last month, but in Weston-super-Mare im sure they went up!

Help me please! I am looking for a lovely chart showing the Libor rate with the BoE base rate overlaid. I have seem it on this site a few times before, but have tried searching with no joy... Please can some one help, i need it to show how far the BoE have detached themselves... Thanks!

I was going to spend an extra £700 this year at christmas, but unfortunatly thats the exact amount Gordon has lent on my behalf (and yours!) to NR, so I have decided I can spare it now...

Wow, that was one teeny tiny story from the Beeb, sure they could spare it? Could they have just reduced it further to Prices rise slightly more negative than last month, but dont panic!

BBC Bull.... DON'T PANIC Anyway, i'm glad house prices are only %10 overvalued!

Wow, that makes some scary reading (well not for us laughing on the outside! ), but I would be more than cursing my luck if i had put punts like that down!

Excellent, I can just see people this morning spitting their cornflakes over their tables.... Talk of crashing, negative equity... excellent stuff!

The above was not meant to offend, just a quick warning not to "take the best rate"... I dont know how much the OP has to invest.... NS&I would be my first choice, but like you say... you already have pretty much filled you limit... so you agree?

While I agree with the first part, I completely disagree with the second part! In my opinion, looking simply at the best rates would not be the best thing to do at the moment... Looking at some of the companies recently that have hit the 7% bracket they seem to be some of the most vunerable to market problems... the last thing you want to do is put all your money somewhere even more risky... I'm going with NS&I, not the best rate, but government backed.... But hey, you have to take risks to make money... its just whether you are equally happy with the possiblity of losing it all too! (edited because I can't spell!)

I may be being a bit too scared by today, but I have just move £21K out of my direct saver with A&L this morning, after looking at the termas an conditions... I lose this months interest (would have been about £80) ... but if i transfer it to NS&I then should get it in in time for next month... better than losing 10% if things do go belly up (and it allows a bit of time for it to travel through the ether! )

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6992586.stm Its now on, hidden in tiny text to one side of the page....

Excellent... Suprised at the BOE if they looked at that same graph during their last meeting, although I don't know what they are following at the moment.. Thanks for that again though, that looks like exactly what I wanted to wade through... now the really tough decision, do I spend a sad Saturday night looking through LIBOR data charts rather than going down the pub?

Ash, Your three month interbank graph below your post looks hugely interesting, Ive searched for a topic on it, but don't see anything...where did you get it, do you have a link for the data or the chart? That, if its saying what it looks like its saying is bad, bad news for home owners (and great for savers!)

Hi, just out of interest, where do you plan on placing them once you have them (and converted)... Do you have land for them? I assume being fixed they would still need planning permission? I only ask as I am interested in looking up a similar solution to a problem I have... thanks.

But like I said above, why would somebody rent a room for £350 when they could have the whole flat for a few quid more (or a smaller one bed for less!) ?

Maybe it really is that simple, and that they do just have a really good deal with the rent. But I didn't think it was all that cheap when he first told me (its quite dark in the lounge, you can see it in the other flat photo)... Its not a well maintained building (you can even see some of the windows are not double glazed). My confusion is just why somebody would think that buying on those terms would be such a good idea (i assume although the rent in brighton is higher, the purchase costs are too!). The poster above was missing the point with saying he could rent a room out, why would somebody rent a room out for £300+ when for just a few pounds more they could rent their own place! And why have the hassle of such a high mortgage for maybe if it rises in value when you could rent and save £400 a month which at least is not linked to a rising market.... maybe I just needed somewhere to vent!

I am really confused today... I have a friend who lives in a modest 2 bed flat near me, he only recently moved in and pays £425 a month in rent and to be honest thats a pretty good deal, it near shops (but not too near) and a park... it looks a bit like this... well, actually its in the same block and other than decor is identical. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-926...=1&tr_t=buy my problem is, I have another friend who is considering buying this flat at full asking price!!! I did some quick sums to show how crazy insane they are and this is how they came out: assuming 10% deposit (£13K) which he doesnt actually have, the payments will be £790 at 6.5%. This then also doesnt include the other buying costs. Am I going mad? how does this make sense to anybody ? To make matters worse... If he doesn't find the deposit, then he will either get a loan for it or get a higher rate mortgage! Then after trying to explain this, it desends into further madness.... he says he could always rent it out if he can't afford it! I honest felt like crying.... somebody please try to explain!