Re: What does it mean

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 13:11:44 +0100, Samurai <samurai@xxxxxxx> wrote:


But why would you buy a house?

It's a good investment? At least here it is.

Usually. However, as you'll have gathered from my previous post,
property is quite significantly over-valued in the counties surrounding
London, and there's a worry the market will collapse. It's already
happened once, in the early 1990s, and some people saw the price of
their home halve. It took eight or nine years for the values to recover
to their previous levels.

I ended up telling my brother about this thread. Unlike me, he wasn't
surprised over the real estate prices. He also lived in California
for many years, and still has friends there, so he pays somewhat
attention to what is going on there and he thinks they're too
over-heated and are heading for a collapse. (Along with some other
places in the country.) It's not like that around here. Housing
growth rates -- uh, well, I'm not sure what they are now, but about a
year ago were only about 2%, and I don't think are much higher now.
Part of that due to interest rates going up. The only way people can
still afford to buy, since the interest portion of their payment will
be higher, is getting something cheaper. So it's harder to sell.
Plus we went through a period of such low interest that some people
will purchase earlier than planned to take advantage of that, and
therefore aren't buying *now*. My other brother refinanced his house
twice during that period of time and knocked a good 10 years or so off
his mortgage. (Not to mention some of the double-payments he was
making.)

I don't know how long this is going to last, but I'm hoping to be able
to get something while the market around here is still slow -- I'm
using an inheritance, not taking out a loan, so the interest rates are
a bonus for me. :-) (And a bonus while the money sits earning
interest while I'm waiting.) And I can't *wait* to get the heck out
of this place I'm in! Honestly, I probably can't well afford to do
this, but rents have gone up so much, while my landlord hasn't raised
mine cause it's hard to find a good tenant -- and I desparately need
out of here. I feel like I'm killing the retirement I finally have,
but I have to live somewhere too when I retire. I'm going to have to
learn how to do more stuff for myself to try to keep costs down. I
told my brother I'm going to do what it takes to MAKE it so I can
afford it. :-) (It's a good thing I'm good with money too.)

Actually, I might even have a bit of savings on utilities cause this
place is so inefficient. I bet even if I had central air the electric
would be cheaper in the summer just because it's so much more
efficient -- ditto heating. Plus I can more easily close off rooms
when not in use. Even if I saved a mere $20-30 a month, it might be
enough to get a new water heater after a year. :-) And I wouldn't be
surprised if I could save $50 in the winter on heating.


I'd be looking at prices in excess of £120,000 for one like you
describe, and I can't afford that at the moment.

Whoa! <pushing my hanging mouth back into place> I supposed Erimess
needs some Sammy lessons on your economy. :-) By time you get done
buying your "house" and paying for gas, what do you eat on?

Therein lies the problem.

Banks here do offer 50-year,

Eek! I'll be dead by then.

4 x salary mortgages, but on even my new
management pay, I'd need a significant deposit to afford a one-bedroom
apartment. The aforementioned savings plan matures the year after next,
but with property values going up by well over ten per cent a year (all
other inflation in Britain is lower than 3 per cent) that'll probably
mean the actual cost will be out of my reach again by then.

That's a lot. I'm still shaking my head over spending that kind of
money just to get a one or two-bedroom apartment. Sheesh. Maybe if I
lived in a more expensive area I wouldn't feel that way. I'm not in
the cheapest part of the country, maybe even in the middle, but
definitely not in a more expensive area. As an overall average (all
areas, over years), property growth tends to float near inflation.


Hooray!

In some of the less expensive (but not crappy) areas around here, I
could get a house -- an actual house, probably a 3 -bedroom, two
story, meaning like 6 total rooms not counting a bathroom, for like
$80,000 - 90,000. Maybe cheaper. I'd have to be getting a relatively
big house and/or into one of the more expensive suburbs to spend
anything over $200,000 like that. (And we don't buy apartments around
here.)

We're a small island, and everyone wants to live near London.

I don't. :-) (I always have to be different.)

Because I
grew up here, I still have roots in the area and don't particularly want
to move away from friends/family just to find a cheap house. So, for
the moment, I'm stuck.

Yeah, family & friends make a difference. I don't really have a lot
of friends around, but I never had many relatives, and what's left are
a few cousins I hardly know. So in reality my brothers are all I have
left and I wouldn't want to leave where they are. There's nothing
exciting at all about this area (though I like how much community
theatre and music stuff there is around here), but it's home. My one
brother has talked about taking a long-term contract job in Europe and
I think I'd freak. I'm not sure how I'd act if he weren't around.

(Don't tell him I said that. He doesn't need to get a bigger head.)


All right, I'm finished complaining about my actually-not-that-bad
situation. Normal servces will now be resumed. :)

Ah, well, you're allowed to complain. I've never believed that the
fact that you aren't in a worst position revokes your right to
complain. It doens't make it any more fun.

So much for getting anything more caught up around here -- dinner's
ready now. (Never mind that it's 1:30 a.m. -- it's still my dinner.
:-))

--

Erimess Dragon
-==(UDIC)==-

d++e+NT++Om UK!1!2!3!A!L!
U+uCuFuG+++uLB+uA+ nC+nH+nP+nS++nT-xa4

Never compare yourself to the best others can do,
but rather to the best you can do.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: When a dog returns to its vomit pile.
    ... My 62 year old brother was recently one of those. ... Shouldn't have taken on a loan he couldn't afford to repay, then, should ... The housebuyers were greedy because they thought they could buy a house ... And the mortgage sellers never thought: ...
    (rec.motorcycles)
  • Re: Google treats Deja-News (Google Groups) like
    ... package" for free. ... If yours doesn't, you can afford it ... http://news.individual.net is much cheaper if all you want is the ... A husband is someone who takes out the trash and gives the impression he just cleaned the whole house. ...
    (rec.food.cooking)
  • Re: I Could Use Some Purrs (OT)
    ... Jill you want me to pay your brother a visit there are some hungry gators ... I feel rather selfish asking for purrs for myself. ... My mother left me her house. ... When I found out he'd called the lawyer about this petty crap after trying ...
    (rec.pets.cats.anecdotes)
  • Yet more brainless shite for Feminist Twats!!
    ... Four models, two gay men, a couple of socialites, a stockbroker and a singer ... with Tourette syndrome are among the contestants in this year's Big Brother. ... Channel 4 reality TV house. ...
    (soc.men)
  • Re: Budget
    ... > to people with kids, I made the point that I made about luxuries..... ... > situation but are on house upgrades or second homes do not.... ... I would add that I'm quite happy to contribute my taxes ... afford luxuries. ...
    (soc.culture.irish)
Loading