economy..

[anna]

so just a quick thought for the day what are peoples thoughts on the falling house prices and the inpact on the economy this might have???

I've lived in London for the last 10 years - never been able to get on the housing ladder. I would be glad to see house prices fall.

I have been totally priced out of home/flat ownership. Houses aren't worth this much. I would love to see ?50-75k slashed off the price of houses.

Originally Posted by Kinvig

I've lived in London for the last 10 years - never been able to get on the housing ladder. I would be glad to see house prices fall.

I have been totally priced out of home/flat ownership. Houses aren't worth this much. I would love to see ?50-75k slashed off the price of houses.

I wouldn't. I'm in the middle of selling mine! They can slash 50-75k in a month or so, ok?

Its gonna affect everyone in different ways due to their circumstances.

I would welcome a house price fall, then I can afford to buy, however those looking to sell or tied into a mortgage would not see it as so good.

The signs have been hanging around for years now; have a look at housepricecrash.com for some major doom mongering!

I imagine it'll be ok for those not planning to move for a long time / or with little or no debt secured on their property. Anyone in a different position may be getting nervous now though.

[anna]

Yup obviously it's going to affect everyone very differently according the position they are in and a lot of people joined the housing market to be able to make profit from it in the last five years are now finding themselves in a bit of a tricky situation trying to make mortgage repayments.

But it isnt just houseprices that are going to be affected by the recent turn of events with interest rates falling as well.

< not an economist. Mind you, they seem to have as much difficulty as everyone else in predicting the future

Do kinda think that people perceive wealth which doesn't really exist when their house is worth a fortune - wheras in reality if everyone's house price halfed over night then they wouldn't actually be any better or worse off (as everyone's in the same boat). Even negative equity isn't actually harming the individual so long as you don't need to sell your house; and therein lies the problem. People divorce or split up quite a bit these days, and after that you either have to be either *extremely* amicable, or sell up.

I do worry (with personal bias admittedly) however that we've already gone way past the point where first time buyers can get on the ladder, and with the afore mentioned divorce rate, money which was typically inherited and passed down now gets split a lot more ways. So are we content to live in a country where property is wealth and held by the minority, or is property a home, somewhere to live, where we'd like to see everyone have a fair chance to own a house and make a home.

I don't think that the price fall will be that major, if any at all. But then I just bought a new house so I have to say that.

i have to believe there will not be a crash for the simple reason that i owe a lot of money on my mortgage,

however, the economy wont crash because its balanced, eg. should house prices drop you still might not be able to get on the market as they will rack the interest back up to stop everyone suddenly jumping into getting a mortgage, thus, mortgages become more expensive . Okay so this will scre everyone without a fixed rate mortgage, but thats sort off life i guess isnt it?

Regardless i would still have a roof over my head... even if i was in negative equity!!

My wife used to be an estate agent and knows a whole lot more than me.

One thing she keeps saying if that first time buyers keep the housing market alfoat and running. You price these people out and you've lost your housing market.