House prices

[MacCoise]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0228/housing.html

House prices for first-time buyers now average over 250,000€.

Headline economic growth is all fine and well, but whats the point if young people (and all people) are being priced out of owning a house?

The long-term social implications are worrying too with the likelihood of there being an even more extreme situation of a small, wealthy group who can afford propoerty and an ever larger number who cannot.

[bobbysands81]

It'll cause a continued increase in rent and perhaps lead to a crash in the market.

If people cannot enter a market then that market is unsustainable. A good idea would be to introduce a tax for people who own more than one house to try and make it a less profitable thing to do thus increasing the amount of houses on the market thus forcing prices down.

However, as we have concistently seen FF are in the back pocket of so many builders that they are unlikely to do this, profit before people is their mantra.

[Quant]

I definitely think the long-term implications for society are bein ignored; it's not healthy or natural to force 2 parents to abandon their children daily so as they can commute long distances to pay a ridiculous mortgage. High house prices are also contributing to couples choosing to have smaller families, and starting a family later in life. Gardai, nurses and teachers are all being penalised, and teachers in particular are living very far from the community in which they teach.

[zakalwe]

i agree with most of the sentiments expressed above.

i'm in my late 20's and bought a house with my brother. we are stretched to the pin of our collars to pay back the mortgage and the expenses of renovating etc. we rent rooms out on the rent a room relief but are fixed to a certain amount to charge (way below market rate for the rooms) because if we charge a penny over the threshold we pay 48c to the euro on the whole lot. i mean, i earn a very good salary but with repayment of loans etc i pay 2/3s of my take home pay to parents and financial institutions. heaven forbid that we sprung a leak or something we would be fecked to pay to repair it.

[Libero]

i agree with most of the sentiments expressed above.

i'm in my late 20's and bought a house with my brother. we are stretched to the pin of our collars to pay back the mortgage and the expenses of renovating etc. we rent rooms out on the rent a room relief but are fixed to a certain amount to charge (way below market rate for the rooms) because if we charge a penny over the threshold we pay 48c to the euro on the whole lot. i mean, i earn a very good salary but with repayment of loans etc i pay 2/3s of my take home pay to parents and financial institutions. heaven forbid that we sprung a leak or something we would be fecked to pay to repair it.

Calculators are a wonderful thing.

Headline economic growth is all fine and well, but whats the point if young people (and all people) are being priced out of owning a house?

But not all young people are priced out. Apart from those who are buying (and they do exist), there are those, like me, who refuse to purchase in an irrational runaway market.

It's not much fun worrying if you are missing the boat, but still more fun than straining to pay a ridiculous mortgage in an era when the only way for interest rates is up.

And you won't get much sympathy from me when repayments bite. It was always your own choice to take the plunge and risk both the downsides and rewards.

As for bringing prices down, no major political party seriously wants to do that. Though FF are in the pockets of builders, the simple political arithmetic is that there are far more houseowners than would-be first-time houseowners.

The real question is how do we build ever more units without wrecking our environment, and what can any government do when faced by a populace that is happy to bid each other up to inflated property prices?

[DSCH]

We need a massive deflationary crash to punnish those who helped to fuel the boom and reward those who remained prudent!

[Libero]

We need a massive deflationary crash to punnish those who helped to fuel the boom and reward those who remained prudent!

Those who remained prudent won't be rewarded, other than through schadenfreude and the chance to buy property at more reasonable prices.

And the prudent will suffer along with everyone else as our banking sector shrivels up, business suffers, unemployment rises, budget deficits roar back, and anti-commerce politics sees a rise in support as a reaction.

A serious property price crash will be a very ugly thing for everyone in Ireland.

What's worse is that those who have profited the most from the boom, the builders and the bankers, already have their money in the bank or parked in property offshore.

[DSCH]

Those who remained prudent won't be rewarded, other than through schadenfreude and the chance to buy property at more reasonable prices.

Where would politics be without schadenfreude?

And the prudent will suffer along with everyone else as our banking sector shrivels up, business suffers, unemployment rises, budget deficits roar back, and anti-commerce politics sees a rise in support as a reaction.

This is the sort of stuff that made the 20th century the most interesting of times. Dont you want to live through a thrilling historical epoch?

[zakalwe]

Calculators are a wonderful thing.

calculators do not fix leaks!

or are you inferring that i should have used my calculator and devised a scheme whereby i do not pay huge amounts of money to the bank et al by living at home till i'm 35?

i'm on my own two feet, paying my way and being a productive member of society. i'm entitled to feel a little grumpy now and again when 2,000 leaves my account to pay loans etc.

[david]

I do read some odd stuff:

Holiday Homes

That getaway bijou holiday home in Achill or Innishowen or West Cork
will become even more of a mill stone around the owner's neck when
increasing loan repayments and running costs begin to really bite.

Frequent visits to get away from it all will start to look a lot
less attractive when it starts to cost say, 500 miles return at 25
mpg at €5 a litre, or about €100 just to get there and back from
Dublin in the laden down rufty tufty 4WD or high performance luxury
air conditioned limo. Switching on all the electrical appliances or
running the oil fired central heating on arrival; to drive out the
damp will be an increasingly expensive option.

Many holiday homes are built on spots with great views but are
unlikely to be bought by locals as they come with little land other
than a postage stamp sized, not very fertile lawn. Many are probably
impossible to economically heat in the winter due to shoddy
construction and wind exposure.

Some may be viable for year round living but most would best be
scavenged, demolished and useful parts recycled.

VERDICT - Sell Now before the rush starts.