Britain’s biggest house price falls

[superbiatch]

http://www.itv.com/News/tonight/epis...s/default.html

Just watched Tonight on ITV and was quite concerned to hear about such bad news in the housing market. I knew it was slowing down, but didn't realise just how bad things were getting. Thank god i don't plan to sell for a few years yet (if at all, i'm hoping this apartment is my pension )

Seems many repossessions are expected as homeowners have remortgaged themselves out of their homes

[peanut]

Yay !!!!

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by peanutkp

Yay !!!!

And that's meant to mean what ? Your pleased that millions of people might fall on hard / harder times, or that it might mean a cheap house for leeches.

BTW, do you own a house

[Tricky]

This is all the credit crunch that the banks are seeing
Nobody is taking much risk at present - not that many special offers on mortgages
Prices have peaked (?) lots of speculation in the market
If you have bought in at the peak and stretched yourself then there may be some tough times ahead - I hope not but unless there is a minor miracle in the markets I cannot see many people looking to spend the money

February will be an interesting time as the majority of the UK banks release annual results as this will be the time where we see how bad the US Sub-Prime markets have hit our own banks and therefore housing markets

[SOSAGES]

i know its nasty but i really dont care if people get chucked out of homes they cant afford. I am (and always will be i expect) a firm supporter of the whole "if you cant afford it dont buy it"
Yes the banks fell over them selves to give mortgages away and high house prices didnt help first time buyers but life is tough.
Id love house prices to coem down (even if i did pay a lot for mine) 2 years ago i paid 154,000 for my 3 bed house now its worth nearly 220,000 its silly.

the house crash is talked about all the time and the media dont help matters

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

i know its nasty but i really dont care if people get chucked out of homes they cant afford.

But that's the thing, they could afford it, they must of been able to or they wouldn't have gotten a mortgage ... would they

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

I am (and always will be i expect) a firm supporter of the whole "if you cant afford it dont buy it"

See above /\ /\

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

Yes the banks fell over them selves to give mortgages away and high house prices didnt help first time buyers but life is tough.

Yes it is, so anything to ease it is welcome.

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

i
Id love house prices to coem down (even if i did pay a lot for mine) 2 years ago i paid 154,000 for my 3 bed house now its worth nearly 220,000 its silly.

Ah, I see why your so smug 'your' house has retained it's value, indeed grown .. very much, £35,000 a year, I see why your smug What about the poorer end of the scale, the honest youngsters getting on the ladder, being 'forced' into a house they didn't really want, and then have it lose value, their fault ??

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

the house crash is talked about all the time and the media dont help matters

Well lets just hope it doesn't happen to you, despite what I think, I would hate anyone to be kicked outta a house they owned, for whatever reason

[Chrysalis]

the market needs correcting so its a good thing in the long term. I will say I am not sorry for those getting a mortgage beyond their means irresponsibly.

If you have a mortgage you also dont own the house the bank owns it. Buying a house is overated in the uk.

[Caff]

I guess I'm glad to have got to the stage - where, finally, my mortgage is nearing an end, after many years of it being my/our biggest monthly outlay........... and hoping my eldest, 23, just may be able to clinch himself a flat, after studying as far as he could realistically go until 18, and then working his socks off for the next 5 years..................... and just might be able to find a place he can begin to call his own...............

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by bopdude

And that's meant to mean what ? Your pleased that millions of people might fall on hard / harder times, or that it might mean a cheap house for leeches.

BTW, do you own a house

There's two sides to every story. There are millions of people who simply cannot afford to buy any property right now, whilst the houses that are at the lower end of the market are snapped up to let out to the people who can't afford to buy them.

I'm all for capitalism, but it's not a healthy situation we're in right now. The only answer that the people can hope for is a reduction in the cost of house prices or at the very least a maintaining of current prices for many years whilst salaries catch up (which in essence is a 2-3% drop per year).

So whyilst 'yay' might not be the most empathetic response, there is a significant number of people in this country who are proably saying it to themselves.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by andygrif

There's two sides to every story. There are millions of people who simply cannot afford to buy any property right now, whilst the houses that are at the lower end of the market are snapped up to let out to the people who can't afford to buy them.

This equally applies further up the housing ladder, people who cannot afford to move out of their flats and starter homes into something more appropriate for say a growing family because as their flat has doubled in value, so has the next place making the cost to move on prohibitive. This further reduces supply as by not moving they are staying put and increasing demand on the smaller properties that are available.
As said a correction is necessary. Housing costs as a proportion of wages is getting to an unsustainable level.

[peanut]

The reason I only replied with 'Yay' was for a purpose.

I find there isn't a point saying much else on the subject especially on this forum anyway as there are just too many that think they know it all or are just too judgemental. Anyway, everything has been said in other threads about the same subject. And I really don't have to justify why I would love a property crash, as it'll be stating the obvious.

So as for the title of this thread, apart from 'Yay' there isn't a lot more I can or want to add.

[southwell]

This is good news for me as iam buying a house later this year, but i see where other people will be frustrated at this. Without a price drop i will be either living at the max of my means or living in a rough area. The fact is though most people have already made substantial profit from their homes and most areas are massively overpriced anyway.

[Osem]

A severe property crash will affect everyone including the likes of me who has no mortgage. Such is the scale of the debt involved now that any rapid and major correction could have huge effects on the economy as a whole including those of us who perhaps have been a bit more circumspect about the notional value of our homes knowing that a correction would have to come. Of course some will fare much better than others but nobody will escape the repercussions of a serious downturn - the money will have to be found from somewhere and those who have jobs/savings/assets/pensions will ultimately pay the price.

It's reminiscent of the stock market crash when so many ignorant fools jumped for joy at the prospect of fat cats in the City losing their jobs whilst failing to understand that their own hard earned pensions had just plumetted in value overnight as a result of the downturn.

Of course Gordon Brown has lived on the back of an economy being largely propped up by this sort of debt and IMO he and his cronies are entirely to blame for allowing the UK housing market to overheat.

---------- Post added at 09:08 ---------- Previous post was at 09:03 ----------

Originally Posted by southwell

This is good news for me as iam buying a house later this year, but i see where other people will be frustrated at this. Without a price drop i will be either living at the max of my means or living in a rough area. The fact is though most people have already made substantial profit from their homes and most areas are massively overpriced anyway.

The only people who have made a profit from their homes are those who've sold at a higher price than they paid and are either renting now or mortgage free. Notional 'paper' profits and real profits are 2 very different things. The majority who live in homes which are still heavily mortgaged have made little or no profit at all and if house prices crash what little thay may have 'made' will rapidly disappear. If indeed there is a crash coming very soon as you hope, I fail to understand how buying in the very near future is a good idea as you will effectively have done so at or near the top of the market.

[Rob]

Oh how I loathe programs like this with a passion. Why Oh Why do the media delight in making mischief out of extreme views spouted by a few based on a snapshot analysis of a statistic. This time last year all you had was the sensationalist reporting of inflationary prices, now it's sensationalist reporting of price drops. Where was the objective, balanced view.

About the only thing in that programme that did make sense was the story of the overstretched buy to let investor who actually never did own a thing.

House sales are still proceeding quite normally around here. Flats are causing some concern, as the buy to let investors dissappear, and yes easy money from lender's has gone. It doesn't mean though that prices will drop by 30-40% over the next few years as some of those pundits had suggested.

And as for that financial advisor, run a mile. If he'd bought two years ago as he'd suggested, on a pad of the size he is renting, no doubt he'd have made a few hundred thousand by now.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Rob

Oh how I loathe programs like this with a passion. Why Oh Why do the media delight in making mischief out of extreme views spouted by a few based on a snapshot analysis of a statistic. This time last year all you had was the sensationalist reporting of inflationary prices, now it's sensationalist reporting of price drops. Where was the objective, balanced view.

Agree - the media have a habit of exaggerating issues and trying to talk us into problems they can then justify their existence by reporting on ad nauseam.

IMO a correction in the market is required but programmes such as these and the actions of 'sheep', like those who rushed to take their money out of Northern Rock after HMG's guarantees, will only serve to make it more dramatic and serious than it need be.