Stiffling

[AtW]

Housing market 'is being stifled'

The housing market is being stifled by a lack of first-time buyers and economic confidence, according to surveyors.

More reported prices falling than rising in November - a similar picture to the previous month, said the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

New buyer enquiries, newly agreed sales and average sales per surveyor all fell in November, the survey found.

Prices were falling across the UK and activity remained slow.

However, the end of the year is generally a slow time of year for the housing market and surveyors believe some sellers will wait until the new year before putting properties on the market.

More from ze source: BBC News - Housing market 'is being stifled'

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It's about time market prices brought back some control in the housing market.

What I mean is that when buyers can't afford to buy then it's the way it is - current prices can't be sustained. What's wrong is that sellers can avoid having to sell due to artificially low interest rates - effectively this is a market manipulation on grand scale designed to maintain unaffordable house prices.

Normally this would not work however this time it's different - printing of hundreds of billions of pounds to inflate everything else to get balanced average house price to be equivalent to 100 sacks of carrots, ingenious!

Or is it?

[suityou01]

Stifling

HTH

[CheeseSlice]

What I mean is that when buyers can't afford to buy then it's the way it is - current prices can't be sustained.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing on breakfast news yesterday when they had the 'experts' in to talk about falling house prices. They kept going on about what was required to get things back to 'normal'... but normal being keeping prices rising not falling.

FFS normal is when house prices are more like 3x income... no 5-6x

[gricerboy]

According to something or other on R4 on Sunday(?) it's something like 9x income in Bristol.

LOL haven't you seen how low rates are in Bristol.

Not wishing to go off at a tangent but I'd like to pose a question. How many of you have ever contracted in Bristol? I'm local and I've never worked there. There has always seemed to be a paucity of contracts and when there is work, the pay is poor.

[DimPrawn]

I've contracted in Bristol before, rates are not stellar (£400 per day), but then it ain't London is it?

[OwlHoot]

LOL haven't you seen how low rates are in Bristol.

Not wishing to go off at a tangent but I'd like to pose a question. How many of you have ever contracted in Bristol? I'm local and I've never worked there. There has always seemed to be a paucity of contracts and when there is work, the pay is poor.

Me, me! I was at Orange for a year or so back in around 2000, in the Aztec Plaza or whatever it was called, near the M5 junction.

[Lockhouse]

I'm just about to make an offer on a larger house and take out a big mortgage. Am I mad? In my defence it's a very nice house.

I'm going to transfer my current 0.67 above BOE mortgage for half the mortgage and get fixed for three years for the rest. What's the chances of inflation eroding the principal amount to a significant extent over the next 5 years?

[AtW]

What's the chances of inflation eroding the principal amount to a significant extent over the next 5 years?

None.

All thanks to deflation.

[DimPrawn]

I'm just about to make an offer on a larger house and take out a big mortgage. Am I mad? In my defence it's a very nice house.

I'm going to transfer my current 0.67 above BOE mortgage for half the mortgage and get fixed for three years for the rest. What's the chances of inflation eroding the principal amount to a significant extent over the next 5 years?

Very sensible. The most sensible thing anyone can do now is to borrow as much as they can. If you can borrow £10M do it now, as £10M will be the price of a loaf of bread in 5 years time.

Just to think, a mansion for the price of a loaf of bread!

Boomed!

[Freamon]

I'm just about to make an offer on a larger house and take out a big mortgage. Am I mad? In my defence it's a very nice house.

I'm going to transfer my current 0.67 above BOE mortgage for half the mortgage and get fixed for three years for the rest. What's the chances of inflation eroding the principal amount to a significant extent over the next 5 years?

The only type of inflation that erodes debt is wage inflation. Inflation in other things (food, fuel etc) just makes you feel poorer every month. Given the current levels of wage inflation and lack of bargaining power most employees/suppliers have, I'd suggest the level of erosion is likely to be pretty low.