housing crash 'could happen'

[WHISTLED]

But personal circumstances can change quite easily and quickly through no ones fault.

Fully agree but those are not the ones im talking about

[Vlad_Dracul]

There is no doubt that there is more pain on the way.

This whole situation has been stoked up by estate agents ,house builders and property speculators for years so that they could cream off vast profits in the good times.

They have been ably assisted by mindless and repetitive tv programmes such as that produced by the rather burly Ms Alsop and her colleague,both no doubt millionaires.

You can bet your bottom dollar though that they won't be the ones who feel the pain. The housing carriage is at the top of the rollercoaster and is on its downward spiral to oblivion.

Houses should be homes and places to live first and investment vehicles second.

Of course we will now see some dodgy practices and hard lines drawn. The repossessions are starting to increase. Look at the auctions and property websites if you want evidence.

Estate agents are still trying to wring the market. A friend recently had problems with an estate agent who had signed him up to sell his house but took weeks to publicise it simply because the esate agent was holding properties off the market to try and avoid a glut.

But the Great British public have done their bit also. How many of them have inflivted by to let blight on others? How many have abetted estate agents and driven up prices? true its a free market economy and their are market forces at play.

So then,if free market economy and market forces can freely generate profits without interference,let them also generate losses without interference and WITHOUT Government and taxpayers intervention.

[BBKing]

true its a free market economy and their are market forces at play.

One result of which is the mismatch between central bank rates and bank rates for mortgages. Obviously banks like having lending rates as high as possible as this means £££. However, a competitive market means they can't jack them too high without the customers upping and leaving for the guy next door.

What's happening now is that there are quite a lot of people (me, for instance) seeking remortgages but a lot of banks are shutting the door on new loans until they figure out what's happening. This is great news for the really big operators like HSBC who still have wads of cash lying around, as they can now lend it to the best risks at high rates, thus locking in a few years decent profit.

So, don't feel too sorry for the banks, the 'free market' means they'll gain on the down as well as the up. I'm just glad we got our deal signed and sealed weeks ago - the rate's gone up 0.56% since then and the fee's nearly doubled.

Talking about houses our local Paper usually has a plethora of pages with houses for sale, today when I picked the local paper up the property section was only 6 pages, on a normal week it's double sometimes treble the amount of pages.

[King Of Fools]

Originally Posted by Nidge

Talking about houses our local Paper usually has a plethora of pages with houses for sale, today when I picked the local paper up the property section was only 6 pages, on a normal week it's double sometimes treble the amount of pages.

Probably because the Estate Agents cannot afford to pay for the advertising any more!

[Chrysalis]

'could' ? more it will happen its just a question of when. Fact is which some people do not want to hear is that houses are currently grossly overvalued.

[BBKing]

Fact is which some people do not want to hear is that houses are currently grossly overvalued.

I do, I've just had it valued.

[Russ]

Ah well, at least some of us might soon have a chance to get on the property ladder.

[Angua]

Brother in Law is having trouble selling & they have done the place up nicely and improved things but been on the market of a year now.