Personally me and the wife bought a place a three years back, yes I know not part of the club. The mortgage was small and overpaying will pay off the mortgage in 7 years (kids will not be popping out). Anyway over the last few months I have been seeing and hearing more disturbing behaviour, this also started to get me thinking about those buyers who upgraded exposing themselves to as much risk as a FTB or perhaps its greater...

A year or two ago a few post grad Engineers (20-24k) both bought places for 200-210k (both married) I was shocked, still more when one had a baby on the way, and the other said it was on the cards in a few years.

A few years back a mate of mine and his girlfriend go and buy a place with Northern Crok, now because he was a mate I tried to talk him out of a 107% mortgage, the guys got 15k round his neck already. Well he was having none of it and i got a cold shoulder for a month for my trouble. Well weddings on the way almost 20k now. Oh yeah that 7%, that was to do the place up now the place has gone 'UP' 10% in his head ... i give up.

A few months ago I was sitting in the canteen, browsing HPC on the wobbly. 2 chaps walked past discussing how everyone was talking the market into a recession. They were trying to sell up.

A few weeks later a fellow employee buys a new home, happens all the time i know, two weeks later shes audibly talking about buying a new car. A month later yup shes got one. Need to find out where she keeps money tree!

A week later still im at a dance in a village hall. One of the committee members left his post a year ago to move to Basingstoke so they gave him a sending off pressy. But they mentioned he had been trying to sell for a year, A YEAR!

Im getting interested in how the market will behave with homes on the next step up. Atm it would cost more than my current mortgage to make that leap, and im hearing many people in the past 2 years taking that leap with little more than the 30k extra made from the bubble in the first place. Theres a terrible mindset amongst my age group you buy a place do it ... 'UP' and then buy the house of your dreams 2 years later. I mean its ingrained.

On the plus side I did stop a good friend from borrowing 90% and trying to use credit cards as the deposit. Oo

It really has felt like watching a horror film in slow motion, you try and warn people but they were turned into zombies long ago.

Even looking at the stock markets, i cant workout why no one is freaking out, maybe I dont know anyone with a pension Oo.

Nice first post.

Glad you've had some success in talking someone out of buying, I've failed with two relatives already.

'Theres a terrible mindset amongst my age group you buy a place do it ... 'UP' and then buy the house of your dreams 2 years later. I mean its ingrained.'

there is in deed.I have spent the last 4/5 years trying to tell people to be careful in taking on more debt.converted lurker,a regular around these parts was saying a while back that in his opinion,many middle earners were more exposed than the FTBs,because theyve actually taken on more debt as theyve moved up the ladder.I thought about it and I have to agree.I have a lot of pals who have made £50k plus on their dirst hosue,borrowed a few hundred k and bought somewhere else with a view to 'adding value' under the belief it will never end.When neg equity comes along theyll be left high and dry,wiht in absolute terms a much larger debt than your average FTB.



homes the next step up will get hammered just like everything else was last tiem.read honest EAs thread in aneecdotals.very informative

Hello and welcome. Nice to meet you, to meet you nice. And so on.

Great post, and I couldn't agree more, especially about the "doing up" and "adding value". Most of any house's "value" (I know, loaded word) is down to type, square footage & location. which are largely unchangeable. All that doing it up does is make it easier to sell, because potential purchasers no longer take one look at it and envisage spending the next three months stripping off woodchip wallpaper; or conversely, makes it much more difficult for the untouched house next door to sell.
But even that doesn't always hold- in 1985 we bought a leaky early Victorian terrace (more late Georgian) in Southwark. It had been empty for 10 years, and probably last "updated" around 1950 (perhaps!) We installed central heating and a basic bathroom, stripped the shutters and doors, stuck the roof tiles back on with duck tape and lived there for 22 years. When we came to sell the Estate Agent said "Don't touch anything. You'll never get it back. People want projects, and they either want this house because it's central and Grade 2 listed, or not."
We took his advice and sold within a month or so - to an energetic young couple with a Property Ladder gleam in their eye.

Now all we've got to do is find another home...

Hello pathfinder.

I have a good mortgage broking friend. And wow, it's as if "... and night fell with a thud" in terms of sales as of early December.
Laid off staff already.

And, like you I am mid - ladder wanting to move up from 5 bed semi to 5 bed detached. 9 years in this house. In a normal market, would have moved up 4 years ago.
Mortgage paid off (only borrowed modestly on one of our 2 salaries in '99) , stacks of cash in the bank ready. But only a grade A idiot (i.e. most people it would seem) would shell out another £200K for the next step up.

It is time for the UK (and rest of the anglosphere) to wake up and realize that life doesn't revolve around property !!

Life is about maximizing the time spent doing stuff you enjoy and minimizing time spent doing stuff you don't.

Cartimandua. Bartholomew St?

I certainly don't want a 'project' personally, I'm rubbish at DIY and I work long hours, I need my downtime! When we buy a place (and that won't be for a while yet, at least 18mths or so) we will be staying there a good few years and as we don't want children we won't need to 'trade up'.

Hopefully we will be able to find somewhere where all that's been done to our taste and we won't have to do a lot - I can understand if you do home improvements to, er, improve your home, but if it's just so you can sell it on then what's the point, why all that work when you won't get to enjoy the fruits of it. Oh yes I forgot, it's all about investment and profit and moving up the ladder.

Not that I'm bitter, like!