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

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

The major reason why I want to buy a home - eventually - is because I don't want to end up like my Granny in Luton who paid rent on her home for FIFTY FRAKKIN' YEARS, on the state pension*. For whatever damfool reason, my grandfather didn't want to be 'saddled' with a mortgage - for, um, 25 years... I don't know how that made sense to dear ol' Grandpopster...

I'm probably going to be working 'til I'm 70, anyways, I accept that, but I don't want to have to work until I'm dead because I didn't get a mortgage and build some equity. Not having any descendants to impose upon (and, at this point, I doubt I ever will), ditto extended family also increases my urge to have a tiny bit of land to call my own... I've seen what the state-subsidized retirement housing is like around here... *shudder*

But, despite all that, I agree with you that priorities are whacked. The food riots are getting a bit more press, over here, but not much...

* - which was impossible. My father and uncle had subsidize matters during the last 15 years or so...

[almostwitty]

Oh I think owning your own home *to live in* is a great and laudable thing. Although in most of Europe people are happy to rent for their lifetime.

Buying houses solely as an investment to sell on - well, fine if you want to do it, but investments can go down as well as up. So stop bleating and demand special dispensation if you're in the investment property owner category!

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Buying houses solely as an investment to sell on

Oh! I missed your point! Apologies abound!

For my part, I was ready to sign the Plaid Cymru petition supporting a tax on any non-Welsh-resident buying a holiday home in Wales equal to 100% of the value of the house but, go figure, you had to be a Welsh resident to sign it.

My husband gets a little alarmed by these fits of mine. I think he's worried that, if we ever return to the UK, all of my repressed socialism is going to come boiling out... ;)

[almostwitty]

Sorry, we banned that s-word over here in 1997...

as for the Plaid Cymru petition... it's pretty much a racist thing to only allow local people to buy houses in the local area. It'd allow those parts of Wales to remain *very* much monocentric...

(and I can say that in LJ. If I said that in my other blog, most of my Welsh readers would disown me. Go figure.)

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I support such a levy on *all* holiday homes. But it's mostly just me being pissy at people who *have* the money to buy such...

[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.