JoeDavola

Dunno how JP kept his composure here (20 mins but worth it as a display of repeated .... I dunno is race-baiting the right term?):

Agreed.

The odd screenshot I've seen of the day seems to show celebrity culture and the SJW ideology that they are used to trojan-horse into society. Fuck the lot of them.

Yeah, I'm not getting 3% either as my money's in cash....but it doesn't make the point any less valid that 3% isn't a great return compared to something like the compounded return from an index tracker.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-44144705

It's funny how quickly people revert to a style of living that assumes that another downturn will never happen, and they'll never lose their job.

Yeah I've worked out that my landlord is making no more than a 3% return after rates/building maintenance/letting agents are paid. Hardly the greatest investment ever is it.

The other trope I've been hearing from a couple of people I know is "you can never lose with houses", and people agitated that I haven't bought yet. I'd guess that's perhaps a sign not to buy.

Well exactly...

The side effect of this will be no more retirement for workers, as no one will be able to pay full whack rent with just a pension. Which probably suits the government just fine.

That's fucking mental. I remember at the peak of the NI boom in 2006, the same price as a 2-up-2-down on the rough streets of Belfast would have bought you a detached McMansion in Ohio where my friends live. Odd state of affairs.

Aye, it's not too bad. If I see something that I really like I might buy even if it doesn't make financial sense to do so, but there's very few places that would be like that. It just amuses me that the answer to 'how much will a house cost me' seems to be: "most of your money for the rest of your life", and when IR's are low the prices rise to ensure this law still applies.

Yeah if prices were like that I'd leave the area and start a life somewhere else. You're basically priced out of life. As it is I don't have to play the game at the moment because I have a great flat that I rent for £500 all in a month (quarterly gas bill just arrived - £37). You're better taking £600K and putting it into a good index tracker IMHO than sinking it into a UK house. Especially if you have nothing that ties you to the UK. As it is I'm starting to come to the conclusion that's what I should be doing with my money - diversifying and saying 'fuck you' to housing - rather than sinking it into a wee semi in rainy Belfast which it then becomes my job to stop falling down. IT folk who live in England would be better coming to live in NI - tons of IT jobs at the moment and the houses, whilst too expensive, aren't that fucking bad.

Excellent point, hadn't thought of it like that. At the moment we're back again to the situation where prices are rising faster than most people could save, and I can feel the 'better get on the ladder before it's too late' panic set in. But simple maths should tell you that prices can't raise faster than wages forever, all the money's got to come from somewhere.