It seemed so wonderful - house prices going to the moon, we could all get rich! Then came the realization for many that they could no longer afford that $800,000 1-bedroom flat in England, where all loans are adjustable.
The same thing will take place in the US and around the globe - people suckered into believing home prices could only go up, combined with 100% financing, ARMs, HELOCs and gullible buyers.
I blame the bankers who allowed it to happen, I blame the people, and I blame basic human greed and gluttony. We've seen it all before.
Spiralling levels of debt threaten to ruin tens of thousands of families, shocking figures have revealed.
Repossessions, mortgage arrears and bankruptcies have all rocketed over the last year.
The number who risk losing their home has returned to levels not seen since the dark days of the early 1990s.
And experts predict that a record 100,000 people, possibly even more, could be made insolvent this year. In the first six months, one person was made insolvent every minute by the courts in England and Wales.
Yesterday's alarming official figures show how the culture of 'easy credit' and 'spend, not save' has begun to take its toll.
The number forced out of their homes soared by 76 per cent over the last year, according to the Council of Mortgage.
August 04, 2006
Greed, gluttony and gullibleness: Britons are mortgaged to the hilt (and losing their homes)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
27 comments:
The last median price spike in CA was followed seven years later by a spike in foreclosures. 56k in one quarter were filed and the median price fell 10%. This time the price spike was three times bigger! Combine that with the loose lending and over-building and "look out below!" This is going to be a particularly nasty business going forward.
Will England be the next Albania?
Sorry, this thread was supposed to be about the UK. Yeah, people of the UK are in deep doo doo. Nobody has flown as high as fast as the Brits on housing prices. With energy costs rising and the piper needing to be paid I'm afraid that many a poor Brit is going to find themselves homeless and still on the hook for their debts. There may be a revolt.
actually, this thread starts in the UK but the stench crosses all oceans
the housing bubble was a worldwide phenomena. the meltdown is happening everywhere
I think the USA and UK may be most exaggerated in terms of "fog a mirror" lending standards and massive pro-consumption propaganda.
And also they're the big ones in the world pissing $$$ and LLL (don't know how to make the pound key) down the tubes on the classic form of pro-inflationary non-productive spending: war.
I believe that this is the RIP of the British Empire.
Remember, the actual Empire had deteriorated from 1945 till the early 70s with the departure of Bahrain from the Crown. During this time, the Pound Sterling had lost two-thirds of its value. A bit later, Britain rode on the back of its big offspring, the USA, to become the financial portal for Europe-America-Asia exchanges. Well.. that was the second wind (or perhaps bean fart) and the gasping for life British empire stood on its last leg as an Anglo-American empire with the parent (Philip of Macedon) now being subservient to the child (Alexander the Gratuitious). Now, it's curtain call and the sun will finally set on the British Empire.
Gee Keith, finally realizing that the prices in the UK far exceed those in the USA? How many of those Brits would love a 3000 sq ft McMansion for $3-400,000 (about what, 160-325,000GBP vs their 1 bedreoom flats for $800,000?
USA looks cheap for everything from gas to lodging to homes to cars, you name it, the price of everything in Britain is double that of here!
http://tinyurl.com/ggxr2
USNEWS reports stagflation..this just gets better and better each day..funny thing is tho, we all know the United States is fucked, but in reality it seemes the world Economy is headed for the dumpster....free Toilet Paper for all.
The effing boomers and the stinky beaners caused the british bubble. May god save the queen.
The boomers are bastards.........forget about racial genocide....it's generational genocide we should be looking at.
A gredier generation of people has yet to set foot on this earth...
The boomers are bastards.........forget about racial genocide....it's generational genocide we should be looking at.
A gredier generation of people has yet to set foot on this earth...
"The boomers are bastards.........forget about racial genocide....it's generational genocide we should be looking at.
"
That plan is already in the works here in the USA, it's called Social Security. By the time inflation runs its course, those Boomer SS pension checks won't buy a haircut.
gullibleness? gullability? That's one thing for which we have the Brits to thank: Mother English.
I'm working on legislation that will issue Do Not Resuscitate orders for every boomer. Along with a post-retirement medical benefit cap of $700.00(USD) we'll make certain those greedy boomers don't take more than they are entitled to. And a max age limit beyond which boomers will be rendered, but we are still working on the precise age, probably 68 years old.
Oh bugger!
Australia has also had a huge runup in prices. I have a relative "down under" and she says prices doubled from about 2000 to 2004. In 2005 it sort of went flat, and now it is headed down. Just like everywhere else.
'The boomers are bastards'
Hahaha. Half the country can't even be bothered to vote. And half of the half that do, vote on jackass single issues like abortion, gay marriage and gun control. Because it's all they can understand.
The bastards are us. And we're all bastards because of a deep rooted laziness which has turned a vibrant hard-working people into a bunch of lazy, TV watching wastrals who've degraded our political arena to little more than 'uh, I'm a Rupubligan (or democrap)' - take your pick.
If you don't like it, get off your ass and stop blaming others, you lazy twat.
Cheers, Haggis
Suuure Haggis, voting will help. It is amazing how people can do the same crap for decades, get the same result then do it again. The root of the problem starts at the Central banks. http://www.mises.org/money.asp
The only thing the X's and Y's have the far exceeds any past generation is their pure self centered ness coupled with a lazyness never seen before in mankind hooked up to the bigest mouth ever produced - you bunch of lazy loud mouth bastards get the fuch of your asses and do something besides blame everyone else for your own shortcommings. better men than all of you have rolled down my leg just in the bathroom.
There is no housing bubble. The only bubble here is the purchasing power of the currency.
Its not that the house isn't worth the dollar, the problem is that the dollar isn't worth the house (or oil, or gold, or tuition etc)
'Suuure Haggis, voting will help.'
Sarcasm. Truly pathetic.
Henry VIII - the original McMansion fool
"Greed, gluttony and gullibleness: Britons are mortgaged to the hilt (and losing their homes)" AND LOSING THEIR HEADS!
Keith,
In a piece dated June 29th, the Economist (your favorite magazine?) had this to say about current home affordability in England.
"When homebuyers work out whether a property is affordable or not, the cost of servicing a new mortgage as a chunk of take-home pay is more salient. On this basis, valuations are also stretched, but homes are still considerably more affordable than they were at the end of the 1980s."
Here's the chart
The article also points out how sensitive home values are to interest rates (which in the US, Bill Gross hints may be going down in the near future.)
It's worth a read. Here's the whole article.
free Toilet Paper for all.
Don't you mean $100.00 toilet paper, borkafatty?
Coo, Blimey!
To Osman,
It does not matter if interest rates go down in the near future. Home prices are too unbearably high even if in interest rate is 0.0%. Why don't you get that.
Post a Comment