House buying, mortgages, insurance, etc

[MazzyStar]

6 hours ago, EV9 said:

 yet the average removal worker earns more than a Formula 1 driver!  

As they should. 

[BukyOHare]

Encouraging update from the Scottish market,moreso in the current uncertain climate:

"The average Scottish house price is up 0.7% on the March figure and up 1.5% annually – standing at £221,267.

According to the source firms latest research, Scotland has to some extent bucked the trend, given that the average house price in the UK  reported by Nationwide at the beginning of this month revealed the biggest drop in UK annual house prices since 2009.

The Walker Fraser Steele index reveals a strong demand for semi-detached properties in Scotland, creating a price bounce.

East Renfrewshire saw the highest average price increase with Edinburgh the only high-value area experiencing a price decrease in April.

The impact, with the exception of Edinburgh, is that ten of the top eleven areas ranked by average house price saw prices rise, with six of these areas establishing new record average prices.

Nearly all property types have performed well but, of particular note, is the fact that in half of these ten areas, it is semi-detached homes that have seen the largest rise in values."

Source:Walker Fraser Steele Acadata House Price Index (Scotland)

This news may make it, in theory at least, more difficult for first time buyers to get themselves on the property ladder, perhaps increasing a reliance on the bank of mum and dad to assist in raising a suitable deposit amount.

[101]

On 05/06/2023 at 17:02, EV9 said:

 The stairwells were dusty and It was affecting my mental status

Kim and Agie found

[Buttocks Brown]

I got a 1.84% 2 year fix with Nationwide 15 months ago. Same deal is now 5.64%.

Crazy, crazy times.

[vikingTON]

The 'crazy times' were the 10 years after the financial crash where states used Quantitative Easing to cook the books and collectively transfer wealth to the already capital-rich and set ridiculously low interest rates. 

That said, the idea that just cranking up interest rates is going to actually control inflation is complete and utter nonsense too. 

[vikingTON]

Speaking of both collectively transferring wealth to the capital-rich and complete and utter nonsense ideas, the Lib Dems have a plan:

Quote

 

Liberal Democrats: emergency mortgage protection fund needed

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is calling for a £3bn emergency mortgage protection fund to protect people who would otherwise be repossessed.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Davey says the government should provide the kind of help that was available after the last financial crisis.

Davey explains:

We’ve already seen the number of people’s homes been reposessed going up massively – surging by 50% in the latest quarter, and my worry is that we’re going to see lots of other families losing their homes, and we could be in a spiral of repossessions.

The banks have got to play a bigger role. They need to step in and help people who are in trouble.

But just as there was before, there needs to be more protection for those who are really suffering and the government just aren’t doing that.

Q: But this would be regressive – people who don’t own homes shouldn’t support those who do? It would heat up demand, when the Bank of England is trying to cool it, and aren’t there better uses of public money? Plus, lax monetary policy has helped people who own assets…

Davey says the Lib Dems’ proposal is “quite targeted and time-limited” and it will get help to people who would otherwise lose their homes.

If we don’t give that sort of help to those people, you’d see a spiral down and it will hit the whole economy.

 

Trickle-down economics now taking the form of bailing out mortgage holders who would otherwise have to, err, sell an appreciated asset.

[Suspect Device]

2 hours ago, Buttocks Brown said:

I got a 1.84% 2 year fix with Nationwide 15 months ago. Same deal is now 5.64%.

Crazy, crazy times.

 

I'm glad (lucky) I fixed for 5 years in 2020. Hopefully this will have calmed down a bit by the time that deal is up.

As for being crazy times, I'll just be an old and boring b*****d if I told you what the interest rate was when I first bought my flat. Back in 1990. Mind you, the 1 bed flat was 'only' £34k.  Swings and roundabouts. 

[Hedgecutter]

On 14/06/2023 at 13:40, BukyOHare said:

it is semi-detached homes that have seen the largest rise in values."

So other people have also discovered the handy trick of drilling discrete holes into the adjoining property and obtaining free heat then?

[arab_joe]

I'm in the process of selling a flat that I own out here, and buying a place in the UK - finding the whole thing incredibly stressful.  Hoping this place will be our "forever home" because I really don't fancy doing this again any time soon.

But I'm actually quite glad that the interest rates have gone up (I'm being quoted around 5% for 2 year fixed) - if I had been doing this 2 or 3 years ago I probably would have borrowed a lot more and found myself bankrupt right about now...

[alta-pete]

3 hours ago, Buttocks Brown said:

I got a 1.84% 2 year fix with Nationwide 15 months ago. Same deal is now 5.64%.

Crazy, crazy times.

Pah! Sitting here smug as having got myself a 5 year fix at 1.7% last March. Some of my University course was Economics (I was clever enough to scrape a pass but not clever enough to be able to succinctly explain my critical analysis on here) but I could see all this coming from a mile off. Looks ludicrous now.  

[Soapy FFC]

1 hour ago, Suspect Device said:

 

I'm glad (lucky) I fixed for 5 years in 2020. Hopefully this will have calmed down a bit by the time that deal is up.

As for being crazy times, I'll just be an old and boring b*****d if I told you what the interest rate was when I first bought my flat. Back in 1990. Mind you, the 1 bed flat was 'only' £34k.  Swings and roundabouts. 

I'll be old and boring. In 2008 I got a 10 year fixed rate at 6.15%. I thought that was a good deal at the time. However a month later rates started to come down, but at least I knew what I was paying for the rest of the loan. 

[BukyOHare]

22 minutes ago, Soapy FFC said:

I'll be old and boring. In 2008 I got a 10 year fixed rate at 6.15%. I thought that was a good deal at the time. However a month later rates started to come down, but at least I knew what I was paying for the rest of the loan. 

Its easy to look back in hindsight and say what you could've done.

It's far more important for people to be aware of their attitudes and exposure to risk and be comfortable with the choices they  make.

We'll all have our own opinions as to what's important for each of us.

 

[Soapy FFC]

Just now, BukyOHare said:

Its easy to look back in hindsight and say what you could've done.

It's far more important for people to be aware of their attitudes and exposure to risk and be comfortable with the choices they  make.

We'll all have our own opinions as to what's important for each of us.

 

That's how I looked at it. Knowing I was paying an amount I was comfortable with for years to come was better, to me, than chasing a 'better deal' every few years. 

[Savage Henry]

4 hours ago, Buttocks Brown said:

I got a 1.84% 2 year fix with Nationwide 15 months ago. Same deal is now 5.64%.

Crazy, crazy times.

Same deal I’ve got.   Not entirely sure what we’ll do in six months time, but I’m pretty sure we’ll go for a fixed just to make budgeting easier. 

[Hedgecutter]

Just calculated that had I not overpaid to date, then I'd currently be paying an additional £250 on top of my existing payments each month (at 5%, on a relatively low balance).

Somebody paying off a £150,000 mortgage at those rates will cost ~£1300 p/m.  I think we paid ~£800pm when we started out a decade ago, and that was with a higher loan amount than that.

The average UK wage is ~£1950pm whilst the average house price is £285k.

Scary.

 

Eta: I remember my dad referring to it as a "monster mortgage", this being a mindset I didn't share because it seemed to be standard amongst peers. 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Hedgecutter

[Melanius Mullarkey]

2 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

So other people have also discovered the handy trick of drilling discrete holes into the adjoining property 

Erm...

[Hedgecutter]

10 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

Erm...

The trick is to do it from their side, otherwise you leave tell-tale piles of dust and whatever on their floor.

Times like this are perfect when their front doors are unlocked, windows are open, kids are in school, and they're in their garden with music on 90% of the time.  You can also turn your lawnmower on to cover the sound of the drill further.

#toptips

Edited June 16, 2023 by Hedgecutter

[Gnash]

21 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Just calculated that had I not overpaid to date, then I'd currently be paying an additional £250 on top of my existing payments each month (at 5%, on a relatively low balance).

Somebody paying off a £150,000 mortgage at those rates will cost ~£1300 p/m.  I think we paid ~£800pm when we started out a decade ago, and that was with a higher loan amount than that.

The average UK wage is ~£1950pm whilst the average house price is £285k.

Scary.

 

Eta: I remember my dad referring to it as a "monster mortgage", this being a mindset I didn't share because it seemed to be standard amongst peers.  Also my old boss saying "with retrospect, if you have a spare tenner at the end of the month, use it as an overpayment, it'll make a noticeable difference eventually".  Very true. 

Generally speaking, overpaying your mortgage, if you can, is a good idea. 

Worth saying that for people in certain circumstances at the moment would be much better off not overpaying.  For example, if you have a lengthy fix at a rate of say, 1.5%, and have spare cash every month you would be better off putting that into savings and earning c. 4%.  Then when your fix is up, use the savings to pay off as much of the mortgage as you can.

[Buttocks Brown]

3 hours ago, Suspect Device said:

As for being crazy times, I'll just be an old and boring b*****d if I told you what the interest rate was when I first bought my flat. Back in 1990. Mind you, the 1 bed flat was 'only' £34k.  Swings and roundabouts. 

Yeah, we're just back towards the historical averages so maybe not crazy.

Few though would have predicted interest rates rising so steeply and so quickly. Last time there was similar was in 1988-89, when there was an increase of 6% over the course of 18 months. Today, we have a 4% increase in 15 months with more to come. 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Buttocks Brown

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, Hedgecutter said:

The trick is to do it from their side, otherwise you leave tell-tale piles of dust and whatever on their floor.

Times like this are perfect when their front doors are unlocked, windows are open, kids are in school, and they're in their garden with music on 90% of the time.  You can also turn your lawnmower on to cover the sound of the drill further.

#toptips

Just worried at what else might come through the hole in the wall.