Mortgage Rates

[SteamyTea]

21 minutes ago, jayc89 said:

The crux of it is, not enough people are yet feeling the pinch. 

We seem to be noticing a reduction in trade (catering).  Usually by now we are struggling and have to take on extra staff, not at that stage yet.

Also noticed that in town 3 of the larger restaurants have closed down and a couple of the smaller ones have not opened up as usual.

Not surprising really, I feel ripped off in restaurants as I know the prices they are paying, roughly what their overheads are, and can then calculate the amount of mark up they are putting on.

[ProDave]

9 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I feel ripped off in restaurants as I know the prices they are paying, roughly what their overheads are, and can then calculate the amount of mark up they are putting on.

Cup of tea.  Ingredients, one tea bag, a little bit of milk, and perhaps a spoon of sugar.  Ingredients <10p, sale price close to £2

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Cup of tea.  Ingredients, one tea bag, a little bit of milk, and perhaps a spoon of sugar.  Ingredients <10p, sale price close to £2

Yes.

Why I very really have tea when I am out.

My general rule is to only get what I cannot easily make at home.

 

[jayc89]

26 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

We seem to be noticing a reduction in trade (catering).  Usually by now we are struggling and have to take on extra staff, not at that stage yet.

Also noticed that in town 3 of the larger restaurants have closed down and a couple of the smaller ones have not opened up as usual.

Not surprising really, I feel ripped off in restaurants as I know the prices they are paying, roughly what their overheads are, and can then calculate the amount of mark up they are putting on.

 

Perhaps it's a regional thing? I mentioned before, but York city centre is still bustling throughout the day, I leave the office at 5/6 and every pub I walk by is packed. We have a couple of nice restaurants nearby, if you want to get in on a weekend you can typically expect a 2 week wait, that's still the case and in fact I think one's getting worse!

A burger van, yes a burger van, has started to frequent a local car park every couple of weeks, possibly monthly. Prices start at £12 (yes, for a burger) and apparently they sell out within 90 minutes. (They are good burgers to be fair, but, £12 for a burger!?)

[Gone West]

22 hours ago, Thorfun said:

if BoE put up the rates by up to .5% as the reports are saying my self-build mortgage will go up to 8.5%!

My first mortgage interest rate was 8.5% and within a year it had increased to 17%. It's all happened before, we just have to suck it up, what's the alternative? I also remember when mortgage tax relief was stopped and the fuss about that.

[Thorfun]

45 minutes ago, Gone West said:

My first mortgage interest rate was 8.5% and within a year it had increased to 17%. It's all happened before, we just have to suck it up, what's the alternative? I also remember when mortgage tax relief was stopped and the fuss about that.

the only alternative is to sell up and pay the mortgage off and try and find something else. not something we want to do but we have quite a bit of equity in the property so is always a possibility if things do go very wrong.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Gone West said:

My first mortgage interest rate was 8.5%

The lovely little Tim Hartford did a bit on this today.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001n1nl

 

Well with listening to as it puts things into perspective. Also confirm a lot of what I, and others, have been saying.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, jayc89 said:

A burger van, yes a burger van, has started to frequent a local car park every couple of weeks, possibly monthly. Prices start at £12 (yes, for a burger) and apparently they sell out within 90 minutes. (They are good burgers to be fair, but, £12 for a burger!?)

Did the operator have a restaurant before?

I like a burger. Went to Lidl and bought enough to make 4, worked out at 80p each.  That included chips.

[MikeSharp01]

23 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Went to Lidl and bought enough to make 4,

Their Aberdeen Angus burgers are great - they cook wonderfully on the BBQ.

[SteamyTea]

16 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Their Aberdeen Angus burgers are great - they cook wonderfully on the BBQ.

Yes, I was quite surprised how good there are.

May go and buy some more.

[SteamyTea]

5% base rate.

Time to review my savings.

[JohnMo]

Saving interest is still pants

[Sparrowhawk]

4% relatively easy access is the best I've found.

[Adsibob]

On 20/06/2023 at 10:36, nod said:

Whilst the government claims to have no sway over the Bank of England 

They should step in and stop this madness 

No, that would be madness. Monetary policy should not be politicised. Far too important.

[Adsibob]

On 20/06/2023 at 12:42, Big Jimbo said:

Now a bloody coffee is about 4quid.

That’s cheap for London standards!

[nod]

1 hour ago, Adsibob said:

No, that would be madness. Monetary policy should not be politicised. Far too important.

Interesting 

 

I was listening to a former Bank of England boss 

He stated that the rises would have no effect on people’s spending 

and would leave things to January 

Which seems sensible 

 

The sad thing is that labour will walk in with a massive majority 

Mainly due to the stories coming across as totally detached from the public 

 

[Gone West]

On 20/06/2023 at 10:36, nod said:

Whilst the government claims to have no sway over the Bank of England 

They should step in and stop this madness 

The government gave the BoE independence over monetary policy in 1997 setting a target inflation rate of 2%. This was to stop years of governments using interest rates to suit their needs. I don't think we should return to the old ways.

[SteamyTea]

13 hours ago, Adsibob said:

On 20/06/2023 at 10:36, nod said:

Whilst the government claims to have no sway over the Bank of England 

They should step in and stop this madness 

No, that would be madness. Monetary policy should not be politicised. Far too important.

Yes.

The government has the ability to raise, or lower, taxes.

It can also outlaw, or introduce, different financial rules.

 

I have been saying for years that there should be a mortgage tax.

So regardless (except in extreme circumstances) of the BoE base rate, a surcharge can be put onto mortgages to help keep property prices under control, so in effect, reduce the amount borrowed.

The banks have raised the barrier to entry with their 'arrangement' fees and conditions, which did not exist when I last got a mortgage in the 1980s, so there may be an case that these should be raised higher.

 

As a few of my friends have children that are at the age of buying houses, they often give their kids £50 or £60k 'to help with the deposit'.

This is utter madness, the wrong thing to do.

All it does is encourage over borrowing.  I tell my friends that they can loose all that money and would be better off bailing their offspring out if they hit problems and we have problems right now)  6 months subsidising their mortgage payments is going to be cheaper and a better use of money.

Edited June 23, 2023 by SteamyTea

[nod]

I understand all this 

But my production is that I test rates will start to fall just before the election 

Complete coincidence 

Cant wait to say I told you do 😂

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, nod said:

I understand all this 

But my production is that I test rates will start to fall just before the election 

Complete coincidence 

Cant wait to say I told you do 😂

When we had the election in 1992, interest rates were all over the place,

, but around 10% at election time. Government ministers had rediscovered sleaze, a war was happening, house prices had crashed, and unemployment was at around 9.9% (currently 3.8%).

This happened.

 

But then, this fellow was in opposition.

 

The country was not going to have another Welsh PM, the scars of 1916 to 1922 are too deep.

[nod]

God help us when labor get in 

At least they will put the people traffickers out of business 

[Pocster]

9 minutes ago, nod said:

God help us when labor get in 

At least they will put the people traffickers out of business 

I’m no fan of any party as they are all liars and self serving pricks . But ! I’ve got a feeling Labour might get in as obviously tories will be blamed for brexit , Covid , inflation , house prices etc. the list is endless . Labours current ‘ policies ‘ ( aka more bs for the electorate ) on housing rental and build are ridiculous. But then , if they win they then dilute what was promised and we end up with simply different shite .

[ProDave]

As usual we have opposing "needs" pulling in different directions.

I have never thought raising interest was a good tool to slow an economy. Perhaps that is because I have always (apart from a mortgage) worked on the principle of save up to buy something, I don't borrow money to buy things. So if interest rates go up, it is not going to stop me buying things. When I had a morgtage the payments would go up so yes I would have less to spend, so perhaps that slowed my spending? but i remember at the time late 80's early 90's job security was my biggest worry so I never spent much anyway trying to build up a buffer of savings, or pay down the mortgage quicker.

So interest rates are going up to slow the economy. The news then starts telling us how bad that is that mortgage and rent payers will have less to spend. Isn't that the objective? Then they start talking about ways the banks should be helping borrowers like switch them to interest only. Well if you "help" them you diminish the effects of the rising interest rates which surely will mean inflation does not fall so rates will have to go even higher?

Then a reporter says "so you are trying to slow spending and reduce inflation by causing a recession"? the BOE bloke blustered and stuttered a bit, of course not.

Then there was muttering about the cause being businesses who want to get back to profit (of course they do) and workers want their wages to keep up with inflation (of course they do) and this should all be stopped.

So they WANT us all to become poor and struggle thus stop spending = that recession.

You might gather I don't have a lot of faith in those in command.

[jayc89]

I suspect we'll end up with a hung parliament and 5 years of total gridlock. 

 

Give me John Major and his straight talking "if the policy's not hurting, it's not working" over the dross we have in power now, any day of the week. All too scared to say the wrong thing and offend someone. Like them or loathe them, the Tories are a shadow of their former self and similarly, like them of loathe them, Labour's policies make not fiscal sense whatsoever. 

[jayc89]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

As usual we have opposing "needs" pulling in different directions.

I have never thought raising interest was a good tool to slow an economy. Perhaps that is because I have always (apart from a mortgage) worked on the principle of save up to buy something, I don't borrow money to buy things. So if interest rates go up, it is not going to stop me buying things. When I had a morgtage the payments would go up so yes I would have less to spend, so perhaps that slowed my spending? but i remember at the time late 80's early 90's job security was my biggest worry so I never spent much anyway trying to build up a buffer of savings, or pay down the mortgage quicker.

So interest rates are going up to slow the economy. The news then starts telling us how bad that is that mortgage and rent payers will have less to spend. Isn't that the objective? Then they start talking about ways the banks should be helping borrowers like switch them to interest only. Well if you "help" them you diminish the effects of the rising interest rates which surely will mean inflation does not fall so rates will have to go even higher?

Then a reporter says "so you are trying to slow spending and reduce inflation by causing a recession"? the BOE bloke blustered and stuttered a bit, of course not.

Then there was muttering about the cause being businesses who want to get back to profit (of course they do) and workers want their wages to keep up with inflation (of course they do) and this should all be stopped.

So they WANT us all to become poor and struggle thus stop spending = that recession.

You might gather I don't have a lot of faith in those in command.

 

The problem is borrowing has been pretty much free for the last 10 years. A generation has been raised on that principle. A large number of fixed rate deals will come to an end over the next 6 months which is when I suspect we'll see things really bite.