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Afraid I agree @Barney12... we were due to start at the end of Jan, but build has come back to say we need to re-negotiate on price. Very frustrating as the budget is fixed... we're borrowed what we can.

I have not been brave enough to go back to the window companies for an updated quote.

Sigh

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"  though the annual rate remains below the Bank of England's target and low by historical standards ". That's the key bit to remember - whether inflation or interest rates, they are all abnormally low and will both start to rise. You're not really going to lose, just that you won't get the benefit of these unusual market conditions that were never long term. 

 

 

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Interest rates and inflation have been so low now for so long it has become accepted as "normal" But with that comes it's own set of problems.

 

I grew up in an era when interest rates of 10% were normal, and inflation was not far behind that.  So when I took on a maximum mortgage to buy my first house it was a struggle to start with as morgage payments were over half my take home pay. But it was only a few years before inflation linked pay rises made that a much smaller percentage of my take home pay, and enabled me to take on a bigger mortgage to move up to a better house.

 

If I had been starting out today in this low inflation climate, a mortgage that started as s struggle would remain a struggle for a longer time, and the prospect of borrowing more to move up would be much less likely.

 

Of course now later in life when I have done with mortgages and stuff, I wold love higher interest rates so I can earn something from savings.

 

All this goes to show what a blunt instrument adjusting interest rates to control the economy is. In fact thinking back I think raising interest rates to slow the economy was just a completely futile exercise.

 

I desperately want some house price inflation here so that someone might actually think my house is worth what the surveyor said it was worth 2 years ago. If you believe what you see on tv about house price rises, it should now be worth 10% more than the surveyor told me 2 years ago, so I had better put the price up then?
 

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22 minutes ago, ProDave said:

All this goes to show what a blunt instrument adjusting interest rates to control the economy is.

The alternative is taxation, not sure that worked either.  I bought 3 new cars and had to pay a 10% premium on each of them.

24 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If you believe what you see on tv about house price rises, it should now be worth 10% more than the surveyor told me 2 years ago, so I had better put the price up then?

Indications are that the London market is slowing, and that is what is skewing the figures, along with relatively low volume of sale.

 

mortgage approvals.jpg

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5 hours ago, oldcoop said:

Afraid I agree @Barney12... we were due to start at the end of Jan, but build has come back to say we need to re-negotiate on price. Very frustrating as the budget is fixed... we're borrowed what we can.

I have not been brave enough to go back to the window companies for an updated quote.

Sigh

 

+1 on the window quote point :(

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1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

The alternative is taxation, not sure that worked either.  I bought 3 new cars and had to pay a 10% premium on each of them.

Indications are that the London market is slowing, and that is what is skewing the figures, along with relatively low volume of sale.


 

mortgage approvals.jpg

That graph shows what I had long suspected, that we entered a housing recession in 2008/9 and we are STILL in that housing recession.
 

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I dont honestly think we ever entered a housing recession,

it was just the realisation that houses were overpriced,

we bought our house at xmas 2007, for what everyone told us was a very large percentage below market value,

no it wasnt, it was its value, the seller was asking too much, we actually bought it for over 25% below what he was originally asking for it.

guess what, a few months later, most of the houses in our close were now valued a good few thousand below ours,

our house is now worth perhaps what the original vendor was asking for it, but that is purely down to us modernising and improving it,

right now, houses are selling for their worth, maybe there will be another artificial boom, but I think most have been burnt already too short a time ago

 

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I do wonder if some of the price hikes on building materials are justified, the fall in the value of the Pound will affect imports, but how many suppliers of U.K. manufactured goods and services have raised prices, using the Pound as an excuse?

Edited by Triassic
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8 hours ago, ProDave said:

That graph shows what I had long suspected, that we entered a housing recession in 2008/9 and we are STILL in that housing recession.

That chart is just mortgage approvals, which is only part of the market i.e. the people that can't afford a house.

 

There is also the technical definition of a recession, it is something like a reduction for two quarters.  So prices will have to drop every month for 6 months to make it a recession.

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15 hours ago, Triassic said:

I do wonder if some of the price hikes on building materials are justified, the fall in the value of the Pound will affect imports, but how many suppliers of U.K. manufactured goods and services have raised prices, using the Pound as an excuse?

 

It's just business. If your competitor's price goes up, you can put yours up too.

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4 hours ago, Triassic said:

I see RICS is forecasting a slow down house sales, maybe this will help keep building material prices in check.

If it's like any other forecast remotely linked to brexit, then the reality will be an increase in house sales.......
 

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