Financial times in the States are bad....

[Sonic]

Totally right Andy. IMHO none of these banks should be bailed out, the ones that are at the top and failing are the ones that took the most risk with their investments. This is why HBOS is bought out by LloydsTSB, a bank half their size a few months ago, who seem to have kept their lending sensible and blance sheets in check, and as a result are not in such a bad way.

I think all the investment banks will eventually fail and/or be taken over. We are seeing a seismic shift in the financial system, well overdue IMHO, and as a non-homeowner who didn't want to pay double a properties realistic long term value, i'm quietly smug that i made the right choice

[Jas11n]

Thank god I paid my house off four years ago

[Acidburn]

Yeah but all the piccy's I see of your cars are in front of mansions (with the odd exception of the before piccy of sooty)

I was thinking of selling the s2 recently and going for a house instead, it was after listening to flat on my back/karlos that I decided not to atm.

[Jas11n]

I have a crumby terraced house Pete. But then, I bought it donkeys years ago for a bag of carrots and half a packet of polos.

The mansion is my dads.

Jase..

[CliveH]

I was thinking of selling the s2 recently and going for a house instead,

yea, well you know the old saying Pete - "you can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house"...

[Fat Audi 80]

IMHO, as long as you personally are sensible with your spending and borrowing, you will be fine, even in this strange and unprecedented ecomonic climate. It is the people that have a load of buy to let's stacked up, lots of credit card bills and a mortgage nearly to the value of their house that need to worry. (Those that have recently bought a house I do feel for too).

I would still urge people who can afford to buy a house, to do so. Even now that the prices have dropped a bit, we are still going to see the average house price rise of the next 5 - 10 years. No time is a good time to buy a house IMO.

Let's hope the government can keep a lid on it. I think they have actually done the right thing over the last couple of days, and you can't blame a worldwide banking collapse purely on the goverment. (That doesn't mean I like them though!)

Cheers,

Steve.

[Error404]

I would say i'm maybe a biot more hardline than you Steve
I have no sympathy for anyone who has bought a house in that last couple of years that they couldn't afford.
And now my tax money is being used to help stop them being repossessed now they can't re-mortgage. I'm sorry, but why the **** should i be bailing out people who were too stupid / nieve / ignorant to have not seen this coming

I could have bought a house on 5x salary with no deposit, but i knew it was a riduculously stupid idea that wasn't sustainable so i didn't do it, now ****ing New Lab are planning on bailing out the foolish with my hard earned money.

If you think about it realistically, the housing market will collapse unless lending can be reinvigorated in the next 12 months - given the state of the credit markets, there no way the previous level of lending can be replicated, the number of able buyers drops sharply, prices will follow.
The average hosue price should drop to about £100k within the next 5 years IMVHO.
We're already seeing new builds being sold of 65-70% of their value 12 months ago as the construction firms convulse - bring it on

[Flat on my back]

.

People need to stop looking at the house as an investment...it a fecking roof and four walls...its a necesssity to live...

Not a fecking way to make money and **** over the next poor buyer.

And why did the so called professionals at the banks/building societies think lending 5X would be a good idea.

My mortgage is stupily low...but i cant afford to move...fecks me over looking for a beeter job...

[Fat Audi 80]

I would say i'm maybe a biot more hardline than you Steve
I have no sympathy for anyone who has bought a house in that last couple of years that they couldn't afford.
And now my tax money is being used to help stop them being repossessed now they can't re-mortgage. I'm sorry, but why the **** should i be bailing out people who were too stupid / nieve / ignorant to have not seen this coming

I could have bought a house on 5x salary with no deposit, but i knew it was a riduculously stupid idea that wasn't sustainable so i didn't do it, now ****ing New Lab are planning on bailing out the foolish with my hard earned money.

If you think about it realistically, the housing market will collapse unless lending can be reinvigorated in the next 12 months - given the state of the credit markets, there no way the previous level of lending can be replicated, the number of able buyers drops sharply, prices will follow.
The average hosue price should drop to about £100k within the next 5 years IMVHO.
We're already seeing new builds being sold of 65-70% of their value 12 months ago as the construction firms convulse - bring it on

Well you are spot on there Alex.

I do agree with you completely. Some people do only have themselves to blame.

I don't have any sympathy for the house building companies now either that have spend the last 5- 10 years making serious hay whilst the sun shone. I do have sympathy for the brickies etc that have lost their jobs though.

I will get worse before it gets better, and as long as my pension and investments do not take a huge tumble I am will be happy.

Cheers,

Steve.

[Ross]

And why did the so called professionals at the banks/building societies think lending 5X would be a good idea.

It's called "comission"... I worked with a small finance company for a short time and was apalled at the mortgages I saw being given out. People were having thousands tacked on to their mortgages to pay for a phone call to an IFA. Another flirty call from an office girl to the surveyor would then see the house value raised 5% to cover this... I saw people becoming very, very rich by roping punters into paying for over-valued houses and rallying their values to increase the %ages they made out of it.

The biggest lender on their panel (ie the one that would give out cheapest 5X mortgages to people without proving their income) was Northern Rock. Wish they'd been left to sink.

The advisors would brag about the latest mad deal they'd pulled off, using benefit income and one-off payments to self-cert 200K mortgages on average incomes... wasn't their problem if they couldn't afford it. As long as the banks would pay up and they got their comission, they were happy as a lark.

Good point re: pension tho steve... mine was doing pretty well - 12 months ago Still, I'll dare say it's worth it if I can afford to buy a home in the long term (note - home, not glorified rabbit hutch).

Cheers,
Ross

[S2central.net]

I don't blame any individuals for seeking out 5x salary on 90% mortgages - the reality is that is what many people needed to go for in order to get onto a property ladder that was getting increasingly out of control. I blame the banks for loaning that to people who obviously had other significant debts - the UK has a massive credit card culture.

I also blame the 'property developers' who helped sustain the feeding frenzy and lined their pockets rapidly through pure greed.

But I also blame one Margaret Thatcher - it was here government that made it possible for people to buy their council houses - no bad thing in principle, but the two flaws were the hilariously cheap price required to buy them (if you'd been there a few years - I know one girl who bought her council house for 12 grand then sold it a year later for over 100grand. Whilst in 5yrs of ownership of a much bigger house in a similar area just a few years earlier I only made 30k profit - I sold before the big property wave hit NI - housing was so much cheaper here when the bullets were flying - don't take anything political from that - its just a fact of life - I moved out of the mess then came back with the kids when peace broke out). Precious little of the councils money was revinvested into affordable housing at the starter end of the property ladder...

So we got this flurry situation where the demand for 1st time buyer homes far exceeded the supply - and so the prices went up - and so folk go looking for 5x mortgage deals which many banks quite happily handed out.

Timing is everything !

[panzerwagen]

RE: Wow, thanks for the breaking news flash! Your point is?????

Can somebody tell me what purpose this obvious rude reply was for? Everybody here on this Forum is congenial and mature. This type of retort has no place here.

[Fat Audi 80]

Newbie internet warrior probably.

Don't feed the trolls springs to mind, so let's ignore it.

Cheers,

Steve.