Almost a class warrior...

[almostwitty]

There is nothing like a bunch of screaming financial headlines to bring out the class warrior in me. Even though I own (half) my own home.

The headline in The Metro (a London freebie newspaper that accounts for a lot of the readership in London) screamed that house prices might drop by 30%. A small headline on page two talked about food riots caused by rising food prices. Another article in the anti-Ken Evening Standard (the only London newspaper you actually have to pay for) interviewed a couple who had to cut the selling price of their house by £100k to £400k. Even though the house only cost them £250k to begin with.

If the recent election results and screaming headlines are anything to go by, people are far more concerned about falling house prices denting the value of their investment portfolio - ie the money they could be making by doing nothing - and the inability to borrow more money than, say, rising food and fuel prices and job instability. Which says volumes about the insanely warped priorities in Britain today.

For heavens sake, a house is there to keep a roof over your head first. Sure its nice to know that its worth something but falling house prices are a good thing for all but selfish investors and those people who HAVE to move house having just bought a flat...

Then again I am (in lieu of getting broadband) trying to redecorate my slightly run down flat and can now mostly be seen in DIY centres or studying home decoration magazines and Ikea catalogues. Oh dear...

Comments

[countessof-roth.livejournal.com]

Wow. I knew house prices were insane in England, but I had no clue they were that insane. Our 4 bedroom 2 bath 120 year old house would sell for about 110,000 your money. (I think its $220,000 in American dollars- well thats my estimate from the last time I looked @ the exchange rate). We're in a suburb of Chicago and about 45 minutes from downtown in traffic. And thats in about the mid-range. I have a friend who just bought a house for $70,000. A 3 bedroom. Mind you, she's out in the middle of nowhere.....

That blows my mind. ANd I thought it was bad here! WOW! You have also managed to dash my dreams of someday buying a house in England and retiring there. (hubby has dual citizenship)

[sioneva.livejournal.com]

Housing prices in the UK are absolutely insane. Our two-bedroom flat, which is *small* by US apartment standards, was valued around £145,000 last year. There was nowhere to go but down...and one-bedroom flats in the city centre can sell for significantly more!

I think it's crazy and don't understand how anyone here ever buys a house.

[countessof-roth.livejournal.com]

WOw. Wow. Wow.

See everyone tells me cost of living in the UK is much higher than everywhere else, but i'm from Chicago, the only 2 that are worse in this country are I'm going to say, Los Angeles and New York, maybe Boston. (if you go by housing , not groceries, i'm not even going to start on the gas prices, because as I understand it, we have it good over here!). But you guys make New York real estate look like cheap land!

when my husband and I were there on our honeymoon I didn't think that, say the cost of a sandwich at a shop, clothes in a department store, groceries were any more than they are here. (we were smart, we didn't eat out every day, we packed sandwiches and snacks for our touristy things). SO I don't think its cost of living thats higher, but really cost of real estate is brutal. You have my sympathies!

[sioneva.livejournal.com]

Plain groceries aren't THAT much more expensive. If you ate out at a restaurant, I suspect you'd have found things far pricier - even a value meal at, say, Burger King will run you close to $10 (which is a lot higher than the equivalent the last time I was in the US).

There are something like 60 million people in the UK, which has a surface area that's tiny in comparison with the size of the US, which has around 350 million. It's not surprising that real estate is so expensive.

As for gas...well, with recent increases it works out to nearly $10/gallon here. We don't own a car ;)

[almostwitty]

Well, after the current house crisis is over, you could perhaps buy a house in the North. They're relatively cheaper.