credit crunch

[JeffC]

everytime I watch the news its the media talking doom and gloom , sure this scaremongering is the biggest part of everything going down hill , it certainly doesnt help,   I keep an eye on share prices and the banking sector is scarey    

housing market up here seems to be taking a big hit as a knock on effect  quite a few of my pals in the building game are out of work meaning any work coming up has loads of applicants chasing the same jobs .

Im fortunate at the mo as my business hasnt been effected to date , I cant understand it but am sure it will not last as cars are a luxury and one of the first things people will cut back on.    

is anyone on here effected and do we think things are going to turn around short term.  

discuss  

[Asterix]

Feel the same way JC but it  won't be as bad as black monday (or was it thursday).

Whatever, it's those who've got negative equity or little income to cover the exponentially rising living costs that worry me.

Also, it's cyclical so we will come out of this and, the more we talk it up the more our finances will go down.

Lastly, money can still be made in a recession, you just got to persevere.

[John Williams (Panda) - Joint Manchester AO]

in IT we have noticed a slow down this year and the price of pc's have just dropped... saw an acer PC for £100+vat... so 15% mark up on that isn't worth the time in selling it for the risk of selling to dodgy nigerians...

(Ranting: sorry if you are nigerian and you do want to buy a PC of me, and your money is stuck in a bank account with your brother who just won the lottery!)

people are spending but only when they have to and wisley. IMHO.

an i agree the media is talking us into this!

anyway why if the oil is at a record high £1xx per barrel and the exchange rate is 2:1 why haven't we got cheaper fuel... or am i missing something?

John

[JeffC]

had a guy around the other weekend  doing some graft on the house, he had a day job that he needed his 5days plus as much overtime as he can get but work was quiet so now has to do building  work weekends just to cover bills etc , said when he bought his house he got a 110 percent mortgauge and after his 3 year cheap deal came to an end he couldnt afford to pay it , he now cant sell his house to downscale as he would have to loose £30k to sell it  sad thing is he has 22years of this left  

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

If I was in his position and I was sold an 110% mortgage that I now couldnt pay I would sue the building society for negligence! What the f*ck were they thinking of?   He should never have been put in that position to start with

[stu999]

If I was in his position and I was sold an 110% mortgage that I now couldnt pay I would sue the building society for negligence! What the f*ck were they thinking of?   He should never have been put in that position to start with

Aboslutely - it's the banks that are to blame IMHO. Getting (huge amounts of) credit has been far too easy - and now inflation is creeping up, somethings got to give

[spence]

I'm surprised it's taken this long to happen tbh.

The Housing market dominates everything. The 1st time buyer was kicked out in favour of fast buck landlords.

Everything that is built up has to have a strong foundation, if they don't they fall down. The 1st time buyer is the strong foundation in the housing market but was ceremoniously kicked off the ladder.

I've been saying this for years and now it's finally happened.

I know there are loads of other factors but this is the main one IMHO. This situation SHOULD have been sorted out and controlled years ago but too many people where rubbing their sweaty hands and making too much money to see what was gonna happen in front of their noses.

With the added cost of fuel at outrageous prices this is only the start of a very bad situation.

I wanted to write a lot more but i is tired and need me bed.

[originalgeezer]

Does anyone think it is the media feeding the credit crunch? one way to bring down the goverment....?

If things are so bad, according to the news, then why has spending on retail shopping gone up last month. Ignore the news for a week and see if you feel as bad, as i happily turn the news off the minute it comes on at the moment.

Example, was last week, how many times were we told not to panic buy fuel? All that does it start worrying everyone and so they do.

So how much does the media hold the responsibility?

Yes, things have quietened down due to the credit crunch, but did anyone not think this was going to happen

110% Mortgages, Goverment encouraging people to take them, live a credit life, build more houses and then when a bank begins to fail, the whole pack of cards falls down.

How many part built housing estates are by you??? only given planning persmission 6-8 months ago and now struggling to be finished

When I wanted a mortgage, you had to plead to get one, have a decent deposit and that was only circa mid 90's

The goverment have built the economy "house on a bed of sand"

Fuel prices are going up because traders are now focusing their trading in oil, gold and steel as they stopped trading in banks when everyone got scared and the markets in India and China are crying out for these commodities to support their expansion.

Gas? Why do we produce so much that we cant store it, so we ship it abroad, who then store it and sell it back to us at an increased price! So why was the goverments answer to build more necular power stations - that we still dont know how to deal with the waste - so why can we not build somewhere, somehow to store gas or reduce production to what we use/ need?

I dont know, lots of questions but not many answers that can easily solve, but this, the next or the one after will highly unlikely have no answer to the twisted mess we are in.

Did the Irish have the right idea of late also, to refuse the EU directive and stand up to them by syaing, NO???

My plan is to cut back as best i can, work as hard as i can, change my diet to save cost on food bills and be restrictive on what i do but still make sure i can afford my pleasures, such as buying another westie etc, rather than go on holidays and sit tight till things possibly improve......

Do i feel better for that, i wish i did  

[Lurksalot]

I am sure some people have got themselves into a problem , how much is down to unwise advice or just a lack of common sense ,

However Bird Flu comes to mind .

nearly 12 months of dire death and destruction headlines of how everyone is going die of a poultry sneezing disease ........... the disease failed to make an impact

Ridiculous media coverage ...probably for ulterior motives

I think there may be a little more to this credit crunch malarky , but I do get the impression that while people may still spend , the media is doing its best to scare them off .

[Crazy Eddie]

Agree the media is making it worse but really, as has been said, this was on the cards when the housing "boom" happened, what goes up etc.

I have only noticed people cutting back on lessons for example because they feel they should

At the end of the day apart from fuel, food, electric, gas, council tax, car tax, insurance, mortgages, water rates that are going up and getting more expensive nothing else has    

[windy]

Well something needed to happen & I'm glad of it because I missed the boat on the cheap housing game last time round.

I am hoping for high interest rates & a massive house price crash to finally get on the ladder. Just got to wait until its at the bottom of the trough again I suppose. When that'll be is anyone's guess

As to signs of the credit crunch, well the pubs all round near me are empty because nobody's got any money & I think the neighbours who bought the house next door 6 months ago have done a runner - not seen them for a week - think they were mortgaged up to the hilt before the prices started dropping - now they are trying to sell without a sniff of interest . They were young property developers

[Crazy Eddie]

Only issue for first time buyers again though is that if the houses do fall then the banks will want a bigger deposit to secure your mortgage and so that still makes it difficult because not many first time buyers have a big deposit. (well I didn't   )

Edited to add: funny how the media were all raving about house prices going up and every hour there was a Property Development programe on and now they are changing their tune - should they not take a bit of responsibility - after all we all know how easily lead the general public are  

[windy]

Only issue for first time buyers again though is that if the houses do fall then the banks will want a bigger deposit to secure your mortgage and so that still makes it difficult because not many first time buyers have a big deposit. (well I didn't   )

Edited to add: funny how the media were all raving about house prices going up and every hour there was a Property Development programe on and now they are changing their tune - should they not take a bit of responsibility - after all we all know how easily lead the general public are  

But hopefully you'll be borrowing less anyway so you won't need as big a deposit

[scruffythefirst]

I hope it does come crashing down, its going to be a tough deal for a lot of people, but both myself and my sister are living at home cos in the south east we can't afford to buy a house.  Fortunatley I have a good job that won't be affected by a crash so much, and have managed to save a deposit so I could go buy a house tommorrow, but I wouldn't want to as at the moment I would only be able to afford a small flat.

Just a case of waiting for it to hit the bottom.

[French Flame Thrower]

Don't forget the estate agent who was always telling you how much extra your house was worth. I alwys felt they were far more responsible for the house price boom than anyone else.