| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| marigold |
Interest rates up againhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6251963.stmDon't suppose many other people will be pleased, but it's good news for my current circumstances. Not enough to put a brake on house-prices though, I suspect. |
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| Northern_Lad |
Interesting - everyone was expecting this next month.
It's quite interesting to compare currencies and shares (FTSE). I wonder when the announcement was made.... 
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| boisdevie1 |
Interest rate rises don't effect me at all and I know that that makes me one of the lucky ones. But I do worry about all those who've taken out massive mortgages over the last few years. I suspect that so many have pushed themselves to the limit to buy a place and if rates go up then it might just push them over the edge.
I blame the lenders who seem so keen to lend 100x salary to anyone wanting a mortgage. OK, I exaggerage but overlending must have had some effect in pushing up house prices. |
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| jema |
People will get hurt if house prices crash, but there always has been peaks and troughs in the housing market, and it is hard to argue that house prices are not ridiculously high at the moment.
Must admit I'm rather glad we signed onto a fixed rate a month ago. |
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| boisdevie1 |
House prices are bonkers there's no 2 ways about it. When you look at average salary I wonder how many young people can afford anything at all. I'm fine because I've got no mortgage but I worry about what my 2 daughters will have to face if house prices continue as they are doing. | ||||
| lottie |
Having taken out a mortgage after not having one for a few years so we could pay cash for a place in wales---this is news I didn't want to hear----double wammy of dearer morgage and finding it even harder to sell our house----the optimism of----we'll just have a mortgage for a few months till we sell has evaporated---still nothing in life is risk free---and I have got a viewer coming tommorow----everything crossed at the minute! 
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| Treacodactyl |
Looks like the stock markets are ok with the rise after a few hours contemplation.
Those of you who have some savings put away it might be a good time in a week or so to check your savings rate. Many lenders didn't pass on the last rise and I'm sure many will not pass this one on either. |
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| Northern_Lad |
Markets love good news; they can deal with bad news; what they don't like is not knowing. |
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| bernie-woman |
Should be fun working at CAB if the predicted credit card APRs rise too 
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| jema |
But whether smallish crisis now, or big crisis later, the whole borrowing bubble has to hit the rocks at some time. | ||||
| bernie-woman |
From my experience it has been hitting the rocks for some considerable time if the people I see at CAB are anything to go by 
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| wellington womble |
Now this really, really irritates me. I've worked hard to get rid of my consumer debt, and not taken on any more. The only debts I have are responsible ones - a mortgage in the house we live in, a buy to let which is a big part of my retirement portfolio and student loans taken out to invest in a vocational career (har har). So an interest rate rise hits us fairly hard, even though WE DON'T SPEND ON CONSUMABLES. We don't do foreign holidays, stupid TV's, fashion, gadgets or replace our mobile phones every month. I have no credit card, and we haven't remortgaged, and spent all the equity in the house. So now, I have to pay more on MY mortgages cos a load of other buggers are borrowing too much and spending it on plastic tat! grrrrrrrrr 
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| Treacodactyl |
I thought a fair amount of the inflationary costs were due to the high oil prices, some of the blame for that could be laid at Blair/Bush? The good news is that oil prices are coming down, at least they are at the moment.
Unfortunately Channel 4 news said a few exerts are expecting interest rates may hit 6% before the start coming down. |
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| sean |
You can find a few experts to say anything though. The Independent on Sunday had an article about the property market the other weekend, and depending on which analyst they asked it's going to do anything between booming growth and abject collapse in the next twelve months. |
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| Penny Outskirts |
What's the interest rate like in Euro-world at the moment? How far out of step are we? | ||||
| boisdevie1 |
In France I think the base rate is about 3 percent. Basically because the economy is so far down the toilet that it's hard to know whether you'll find it faster from the bathroom or from the septic tank. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
Held at 3.5%. |
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| Treacodactyl |
I'll wait to I hear what the general consensus is before making my mind up. Most experts predicted about 5.5% sometime this year but it'll be interesting to see if that gets revised. If the long term fixed rates also go up then it would appear things are a bit worse than most people though at the start of the year. |
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| AnneandMike |
I don't quite follow you. Lower oil prices encourages consumption and therefore speeds up the moment, just around the corner, when ther isn't enough oil to go round ('peak oil') and the crunch will then be even harder. Only a steady and unrelenting rise in oil prices is likely to allow some adaptation to the problem, even if it will hurt some people. Bad times ahead!!! |
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| Treacodactyl |
I don't quite follow what you don't follow.  As the oil price rises then inflation rises due to higher production costs, higher energy bills etc. Oil prices were very high last summer but have eased a fair bit due to the mild winter but it takes a while for the lower prices to take effect on inflation.
Longer term who knows what will happen when oil prices carry on rising but in the next few years many 'experts' seem to predict lower prices than were seen last year. At least we have relativity low inflation Zimbabwean inflation hit 1,281% last year. |
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| Blue Peter |
Most of the 1.3 odd trillion UK personal debt is mortgage debt. Whilst some of that may have been MEW-ed to buy other things, I suspect that most of it has gone on houses, since the average house is, what? 8 times the average salary, Peter. |
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| joanne |
More or less the same as WW but we had an awful credit history before we bought this house so had to go for a sub-prime mortgage and we are locked into this until October this year
Currently we are paying 9% and I expect this will go up again with this announcement - Thankfully I am earning more than enough to cover it but I really am looking forward to the day I can turn round to the mortgage company and tell them where to stick their extortoinate mortgage rate |