hatchelt wrote:Mind you, I'd much rather be living in my own house with the crash comes, then living in someone else's (renting)...
I must admit that I'd probably agree here, though we are currently renting (STR-ed in the lingo from the housepricecrash site). It means that we're flexible at the moment, but by nature I'm the sort of person who prefers to be solid, and having a solid base is certainly a great part of that,
Solid, in terms of having a house around one's neck, especially one with a debt, might feel rather too solid in times of change. Flexibility is almost certainly better.
As to how to preserve (or even increase) your capital in the short term, there have been some good areas to research and choose from suggested here already.
nancy wrote:Solid, in terms of having a house around one's neck, especially one with a debt, might feel rather too solid in times of change. Flexibility is almost certainly better.
As to how to preserve (or even increase) your capital in the short term, there have been some good areas to research and choose from suggested here already.
But without debt, I think that I might prefer to own my own than be at the whim of someone else or the banks or out on the street (if I had no money).
I run a small house building business and if 'the peak' is this year I suspect I will have about five years left until it becomes impossible to carry on...
If you are seriously looking at a house you should look closely at the specification or negotiate with the builder who is trying to sell the house:
Unvented hot water cylinder with secondary circuit to adapt to solar or ground source heat pump inputs. Better still, third circuit to adapt wood burning stove.
Under floor heating to the ground floor - by far the most efficient use of secondary heat sources.
Shop around and negotiate hard, there's a lot of builders with unsold partially complete stock and tight cashflows.
The sadest thing about this is that even if every home in the UK was built to the highest 'eco-standards' starting from tomorrow, in 10 years the total amount would barely make up 1% of housing stock!
When the Crash comes, obviously Millions of home owners will be unable to keep up with payments. Will they be able to evict so many people?
The same goes for credit cards and loans, millions won't be able to repay those, they surely can't imprison millions? and the whatever the bailifts take, will it mater once we are in the emergency as material things will then be worthless.
Have I got the wrong end of the stick, or is this a good time to accumalate debt, by buying a house, taking out loans and using your credit card like there's no tomorrow?
Enjoy yourself with the time remaining, I've decided I'm going to.
wayne72 wrote:Have I got the wrong end of the stick, or is this a good time to accumalate debt, by buying a house, taking out loans and using your credit card like there's no tomorrow?
I think this only makes sense if a) you expect inflation to rise dramatically, b) that your job is safe in such an environment and its pay rate will increase in line and c) you can maintain interest payments while your debts are inflated away to nothing. Very risky.
"If the complexity of our economies is impossible to sustain [with likely future oil supply], our best hope is to start to dismantle them before they collapse." George Monbiot
Don't get me wrong this isn't my plan, but its just the way I see things thats all. To be honest i'm trying to clear my debts, I feel thats the best way. The thing is, is surely once The Big Rollover takes hold then Monteray systems will collapse. So whatever debt you make now it shouldn't really effect your situation?
Enjoy yourself with the time remaining, I've decided I'm going to.
wayne72 wrote:Don't get me wrong this isn't my plan, but its just the way I see things thats all. To be honest i'm trying to clear my debts, I feel thats the best way. The thing is, is surely once The Big Rollover takes hold then Monteray systems will collapse. So whatever debt you make now it shouldn't really effect your situation?
I think you're doing the right thing by clearing your debts! I have a feeling that the Big Rollover (love the term by the way) might turn out as a very long one + those economists do seem to have some pretty good survival instincts, so I wouldn't go "burying" them just yet
They say an intelligent person knows how to solve problems that a wise person would know how to avoid... Think about it in the context of our society for a moment
LOL glad you enjoy the term "The Big Rollover". I'm sure I got the term from "The Long Emergency", it may have been another book, but either way I can't take the credit for it, as I did read it somewere else. I did myself enjoy the term. It goes beyond PO you see. TBR is the time of crises.
Enjoy yourself with the time remaining, I've decided I'm going to.
hatchelt wrote:Peter,
I'm not too worried about a market crash. Both me and the fianc?e have decent jobs (and jobs which should last well into the energy crisis (the misses is PA to a high-up in Mott Macdonalds rail department) and if push came to shove we could channel all our income to paying the mortgage off.
I wouldn't assume that ANY job will last well into the energy crisis.
"We're just waiting, looking skyward as the days go down / Someone promised there'd be answers if we stayed around."
Joe wrote:Now could quite possibly be the worst possible time to buy a house. ever.
Agreed. We are still in the "denial" stage at the moment, which is why the number of transactions is still ridiculously low. Would-be sellers either won't or can't lower their prices, even though they are getting no viewings. Those people will either have to capitulate eventually, or more likely they will stay put or rent it out. The market value of houses right now is being driven by forced sales (because of deaths and divorces, but not so much because of debts...YET). It is very fragile though...as soon as interest rates go up, and they will have to eventually, forced sales from debt will also increase.
Everyone is losing though....I know several people who have been saving for ages and are now seeing their savings decrease in value because inflation is higher than interest rates.
Joe wrote:Now could quite possibly be the worst possible time to buy a house. ever.
Agreed.
What proportion of would-be sales are those hopefuls who now find themselves in negative equity?
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
