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United Kingdom Talk Tuesday 30th September 2008
Tuesday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
A package arrives.
"Visions".
A nice smell.
Trying to find excuses.
Berkshire sounds of the countryside at http://www.chrisreardon.co.uk
Banks wanna borrow my money ! LOL.
Half in the sun, half in the shade.
A new dog.
Overwhelmed.
Richard knows these things.
A terrible waste of fish.
Does a long distance relationship work ?
Maybe this time.
Other "Disneyland's".
You could have saved £10,000 - £15,000.
London Symphony Orchestra.
He must drive his wife mad.
Strange names for dogs.
Controlled by our pets.
How do spiders attach their webs at each end ?
E.T.Phone home.
Love on the internet.
It's all wrong dear.
Your favourite Disney film ?
If you shot yourself in the head, would you feel it ?
An Icelandic event just gone.
Nothing other than earth.
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UK Tuesday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats. ... more -
Falling house prices are saving marriages
Property group Savills says there is a strong correlation between changes in house prices and the number of divorces in England and Wales as falling prices makes divorce less affordable. They seem to have a point as the Office of National Statistics reports that the divorce rate in England and Wales is at a 26-year low, with 11.9 divorcing people for every 1,000 of the married population.
Nowadays, couples are more likely to divorce at a higher age, so that there is more equity involved in the split. "The seven year itch is becoming the 20 to 25 year itch," said Lucian Cook, director of research at Savills. "They are couples who have climbed the housing ladder and, having generated significant equity, divide it between them when they separate." As a result, they could be more likely to stall on divorcing and selling up, or could be waiting for prices to fall further before buying smaller properties separately.
But other surveys suggest that the economic downturn could affect marriages among those working in the City. A poll commissioned by law firm Mishcon de Reya earlier this year suggested that a fifth of stockbrokers, hedge fund managers and analysts knew a colleague who had been issued with divorce proceedings since the downturn began. Property group Savills says there is a strong correlation between changes in house prices and the number of divorces in England and Wa... more -
Things will get worse: you can bet the house on it
Behind Mervyn King's warning and government dithering, a host of factors suggest that the property crash will be with us for a long time - and could have far-reaching effects.
Nav Sharma is listening, downcast, to the sound of silence. At the once-bustling Ruxton's estate agency in Solihull, a suburb on the southern outskirts of Birmingham, househunters have all but disappeared.
'Have you heard one phone ring since you've been in here?' the agency's senior partner asks repeatedly. 'Most agents have written this year off. I have never seen a downturn like it and I have been in this business for 25 years.' Prices have already dropped by 5 to 10 per cent, he says, as buyers pull out of chains.
He blames Gordon Brown for the housing squeeze which is hitting this relatively affluent suburb. 'The government has been shockingly incompetent, they have pulled the rug from under our feet, they should start showing some leadership.' He adds that perceived hesitation over a proposed stamp duty 'holiday' is a making a bad situation worse.
'Their dithering has led to chains collapsing. All we need is stability. The bottom has fallen out of this market.' He says mortgage applications are taking twice as long as usual, compounding the problem.
Elaine Brookes, Sharma's colleague, interjects plaintively: 'Can you please go and knock on Number 10 and ask them to give us some help?'.
This sorry tale is being repeated up and down the country as the property boom which began to gather pace in the mid-1990s, and more than tripled house prices in a decade, turns to bust. The estate agents on the front line of the slowdown may not be among the best-loved professionals, but the fallout is likely to spread far beyond them. As homeowners everywhere rethink how much their property may be worth, spending patterns are being reined in, and buy-to-let entrepreneurs have their calculators out. Behind Mervyn King's warning and government dithering, a host of factors suggest that the property crash will be with us for a lo... more -
Toilet block sells for £35,000: so much for the credit crisis?
A derelict public toilet has defied the downturn in the housing market to sell for £34,500.
The single-storey, breeze-block building attracted interest from first-time buyers reportedly seeking a foothold on the property market.
Auctioneers said the purchase would allow the new owners to "let their imagination explore further possibilities".
The conveniences, in Bath, Somerset, were listed with a guide price of £10,000 but, after an intense period of bidding, the hammer eventually came down at £34,500.
The block is close to a row of shops and within a five-minute walk of the city centre.
A spokeswoman for auctioneers Breach Wood Ingram said: "Interest was particularly high in this sale.
"This was a rare opportunity in a stunning location and a truly unique chance to acquire a plot of land in a very sought-after area."
Is this the only kind of property most people could afford to buy these days? Have you seen property prices changing where you are, or been affected by rising or falling house values, whether you own or rent? And if you owned a toilet block, what exactly would you do with it? A derelict public toilet has defied the downturn in the housing market to sell for £34,500. ... more -
House prices 'will keep falling'
House prices in the UK and the US are likely to fall for another two years, the chairman of one of the world's most powerful banks has warned.
Sir Win Bischoff of Citigroup told BBC Business Editor Robert Peston he expects it will take two years for the markets to "stabilise".
Sir Win also expected the credit crunch - fraught conditions in financial markets - to continue through 2009.
Citigroup lost $2.5bn (£1.25bn) in the three months to the end of June 2008.
The figures were less than analysts had been expecting.
Nonetheless, the announcement took cumulative losses at the bank - until recently the world's largest - to $17bn (£8.5bn) over the previous nine months.
Sir Win told the BBC that there would be redundancies at the bank, which employs 12,000 in the UK - some of them compulsory. House prices in the UK and the US are likely to fall for another two years, the chairman of one of the world's most powerful bank... more -
UK Recession fears grow as house buyers vanish
Nine out of 10 estate agents are reporting falling prices - was likely to spill over into weaker high street spending and job losses for construction workers. "The chances of a recession are growing by the day" says Jonathan Loynes, of Capital Economics.
Like in '92, is the UK heading into Recession? Nine out of 10 estate agents are reporting falling prices - was likely to spill over into weaker high street spending and job losses f... more -
250,000 UK home owners slip into negative equity
That means that 250,000 people now owe more on their mortgage than their house is actually worth, something which looks eerily like the early 90's when 1.8 million people had negative equity on their home.
Citigroup’s chief UK economist, Michael Saunders has warned that house price could drop by 15% by the end of 2009, which would ensure that around 1 million people will be have negative equity in their homes.
Gordon Brown has stated his confidence that he can steer the nation through the financial turmoil, but with the credit crunch, crashing house prices and the rising cost of oil, has he bitten off more than he can chew?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7401846.stm That means that 250,000 people now owe more on their mortgage than their house is actually worth, something which looks eerily like th... more -
U.K. house prices falling at fastest rate since 1991
The decline in the housing market accelerated this month with prices falling at their fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s.
Nationwide reported this morning that UK house prices fell by 2.5% in May compared with April. This is the biggest month-on-month decline since the building society started tracking the market in 1991, and much worse than had been expected.
At £173,583, the average home is worth 4.4% less than in May 2007 – the biggest annual drop since December 1992.
House prices have now been falling for the last seven months, but analysts were startled by the extent of the downturn over the last few weeks.
"The 2.5% plunge in house prices in May reported by Nationwide is a real shock and will fuel concern that we are now headed for a sharp correction in house prices," warned Howard Archer of Global Insight.
Archer believes that prices will fall by 7% this year and 9% in 2009.
"Mortgage approvals for house purchases remain at historically low levels, agreed sales are falling, buyer interest is continuing to decline, it is taking longer to sell a house and sellers are achieving a falling percentage of their asking price," he argued.
And Alan Clarke, economist at BNP Paribas, warned that "the news just keeps getting worse".
Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said that tighter lending conditions, following the credit crunch, were making it harder for potential buyers to get a mortgage.
Recent negative weak economic news added to the "gathering momentum of negative sentiment about the housing market", she added.
The long housing boom that began in the mid-1990s means that house prices are still 5% higher than two years ago, and 10% higher than May 2005.
Nationwide also argues that the recent cooling of mortgage availability could be beneficial in the long term.
"While this is frustrating for those in that position, more stringent underwriting criteria should ultimately lead to fewer overstretched borrowers and hence a more stable and sustainable market," Earley said.
Nationwide's figures sent shares in Britain's housebuilders sliding this morning, with Taylor Wimpey dropping nearly 4%. Like most of its rivals, Taylor Wimpey warned earlier this month that it saw a sharp drop in activity in April. Some builders, such as Redrow, have begun cutting staff as they brace themselves for a prolonged downturn. The decline in the housing market accelerated this month with prices falling at their fastest rate since the recession of the early 19... more -
The US sub-prime crisis in graphics
The US sub-prime mortgage crisis has lead to plunging property prices, a slowdown in the US economy, and billions in losses by banks. It stems from a fundamental change in the way mortgages are funded.
If you are like me, you have probably heard about the sub-prime mortgage crisis, but have no idea what it really means, this article explains very clearly what is happening in this country.
Eye opening article! The US sub-prime mortgage crisis has lead to plunging property prices, a slowdown in the US economy, and billions in losses by banks. ... more
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