She's veering a bit to the darkside on this report.
Read it below or follow the link:
High cost of living in home of your dreams
QUOTE
Monday, January 28, 2008
The last year has seen dramatic changes in the housing market. But has the prices rollercoaster cost us all dear? Property Correspondent Helen Carson reports
Everybody's talking about house prices ... again. It was the hot topic of 2006 during the province's property boom when prices peaked, growing at a record 50%-plus in just one year.
An avalanche of surveys put price tags of between £200,000 and just under a quarter of a million pounds on your bricks and mortar.
Those lucky home-owners were said to be raking in up to £200 a day in profit, according to the reports.
The flip side of the boom-time was, of course, the arrival of gazumping - when a seller accepts a higher bid having agreed a lower one earlier - a practice virtually unheard of before in the local marketplace.
First-time buyers had to turn to the bank of mum and dad to get their foot on the first rung of the property ladder. Bidding wars with cash-rich investors ensued and To Let signs replaced the For Sale ones in traditional working class areas as starter homes were snapped up and turned into cash cows.
Panic buying replaced the rational decisions which usually accompanied the single biggest transaction of most people's lives.
But the tide did inevitably turn at the beginning of 2007 when whisperings of a 'crash' began. Suddenly those 'canny' investors started to get nervous and began to off-load as interest rates soared and prices slowed down, but their investments had pushed out the very people they now needed - first-time buyers.
And by the end of 2007, the housing market was unrecognisable. Price slashing, developers dropping prices and offering incentives - anything from foreign holidays to cars and even cash towards mortgage repayments - were commonplace.
Those genuine home-owners who simply wanted to trade-up or downsize had to take it on the chin, when their property was valued at £20,000 less than the man up the street who sold his house nine months previously.
Further insult was then added to injury when, after several barren weeks, beleaguered sellers would have to drop the price again in a bid to attract a buyer.
Gazumping had been replaced by gazundering - when a buyer undercuts their original offer at the eleventh hour.
The biggest irony to this situation is that last year the province's house prices went up by a phenomenal 40%-plus - but set against the previous boom year, it was a downward turn (around 24%) - and cold comfort for those gazing sadly at a For Sale board for months on end while their life is put on hold.
Month after month, reports pointed to prices plummeting at the end of 2007, yet still Northern Ireland is one of the most expensive places in the UK to buy a house - second only to London and its suburbs. Just 12 months ago, a terrace in Belfast could barely be got for less than £200,000, now there are many for less than £150,000. Properties which were snapped up in less than seven days just over a year ago are left sad and dejected for months only to be taken off the market by fed-up owners.
The province now finds itself in stalemate. We need more social houses as many Housing Executive homes, acquired by tenants in the right-to-buy scheme, are off the market - so to speak. Another consequence of the boom was that many tenants- turned-owners sold off their homes which were selling at a premium to investors.
Finance Minister Peter Robinson has been generous with monies to build more homes - a £205m cash injection over the next three years will mean 6,000 additional social and affordable homes. And this was on top of an extra £70m pledged in the current year for houses.
And while no one would begrudge money for homes - shelter is, in fact, a basic human right - the Government is effectively pay-rolling the housing crisis.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has called for the right-to-buy scheme to be axed as it takes social houses out of the pool.
But if tenants are deprived of the chance to buy the house they have called home (and paid rent on) for many years, surely the only outcome is a divided society? The 'haves' will be those lucky enough to be on the property ladder, investors and well-heeled first-time buyers.
Meanwhile, the 'have-nots' will number single people, single-parent families and those on low incomes who will be left with no choice but to stump up rent for over-priced property in a bid to clear the owners' massive mortgage repayments. One thing most people agree on is home ownership, which is higher in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK at around 90%, is good for society. When people have 'ownership' it reflects far beyond their four walls and into the local community in which there is more pride.
Now, however, the Thatcher- inspired dream of home-ownership for all will be a faded and largely unattainable hope. At a time when there is so much talk of progress in Northern Ireland - the bright, shiny, fast-talking new province, it seems, is only for the affluent chosen few. We all know our society is evolving.
With ex-pats coming home and migrants seeking fresh opportunities on these shores, the economy is booming. But surely the spoils should be for all to share? Or else what was the last 40 years, which witnessed many historic fights for justice and equality, all about?
The last year has seen dramatic changes in the housing market. But has the prices rollercoaster cost us all dear? Property Correspondent Helen Carson reports
Everybody's talking about house prices ... again. It was the hot topic of 2006 during the province's property boom when prices peaked, growing at a record 50%-plus in just one year.
An avalanche of surveys put price tags of between £200,000 and just under a quarter of a million pounds on your bricks and mortar.
Those lucky home-owners were said to be raking in up to £200 a day in profit, according to the reports.
The flip side of the boom-time was, of course, the arrival of gazumping - when a seller accepts a higher bid having agreed a lower one earlier - a practice virtually unheard of before in the local marketplace.
First-time buyers had to turn to the bank of mum and dad to get their foot on the first rung of the property ladder. Bidding wars with cash-rich investors ensued and To Let signs replaced the For Sale ones in traditional working class areas as starter homes were snapped up and turned into cash cows.
Panic buying replaced the rational decisions which usually accompanied the single biggest transaction of most people's lives.
But the tide did inevitably turn at the beginning of 2007 when whisperings of a 'crash' began. Suddenly those 'canny' investors started to get nervous and began to off-load as interest rates soared and prices slowed down, but their investments had pushed out the very people they now needed - first-time buyers.
And by the end of 2007, the housing market was unrecognisable. Price slashing, developers dropping prices and offering incentives - anything from foreign holidays to cars and even cash towards mortgage repayments - were commonplace.
Those genuine home-owners who simply wanted to trade-up or downsize had to take it on the chin, when their property was valued at £20,000 less than the man up the street who sold his house nine months previously.
Further insult was then added to injury when, after several barren weeks, beleaguered sellers would have to drop the price again in a bid to attract a buyer.
Gazumping had been replaced by gazundering - when a buyer undercuts their original offer at the eleventh hour.
The biggest irony to this situation is that last year the province's house prices went up by a phenomenal 40%-plus - but set against the previous boom year, it was a downward turn (around 24%) - and cold comfort for those gazing sadly at a For Sale board for months on end while their life is put on hold.
Month after month, reports pointed to prices plummeting at the end of 2007, yet still Northern Ireland is one of the most expensive places in the UK to buy a house - second only to London and its suburbs. Just 12 months ago, a terrace in Belfast could barely be got for less than £200,000, now there are many for less than £150,000. Properties which were snapped up in less than seven days just over a year ago are left sad and dejected for months only to be taken off the market by fed-up owners.
The province now finds itself in stalemate. We need more social houses as many Housing Executive homes, acquired by tenants in the right-to-buy scheme, are off the market - so to speak. Another consequence of the boom was that many tenants- turned-owners sold off their homes which were selling at a premium to investors.
Finance Minister Peter Robinson has been generous with monies to build more homes - a £205m cash injection over the next three years will mean 6,000 additional social and affordable homes. And this was on top of an extra £70m pledged in the current year for houses.
And while no one would begrudge money for homes - shelter is, in fact, a basic human right - the Government is effectively pay-rolling the housing crisis.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has called for the right-to-buy scheme to be axed as it takes social houses out of the pool.
But if tenants are deprived of the chance to buy the house they have called home (and paid rent on) for many years, surely the only outcome is a divided society? The 'haves' will be those lucky enough to be on the property ladder, investors and well-heeled first-time buyers.
Meanwhile, the 'have-nots' will number single people, single-parent families and those on low incomes who will be left with no choice but to stump up rent for over-priced property in a bid to clear the owners' massive mortgage repayments. One thing most people agree on is home ownership, which is higher in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK at around 90%, is good for society. When people have 'ownership' it reflects far beyond their four walls and into the local community in which there is more pride.
Now, however, the Thatcher- inspired dream of home-ownership for all will be a faded and largely unattainable hope. At a time when there is so much talk of progress in Northern Ireland - the bright, shiny, fast-talking new province, it seems, is only for the affluent chosen few. We all know our society is evolving.
With ex-pats coming home and migrants seeking fresh opportunities on these shores, the economy is booming. But surely the spoils should be for all to share? Or else what was the last 40 years, which witnessed many historic fights for justice and equality, all about?
The last 3 paragraphs are her own interpretation - i wonder if she still considers "over-priced property" to be in her own words "a good investment"???
Any thoughts - and did someone say Pulitzer?
(quote from dstars)
....
for once.... 
