A and C you took the words right off my keyboard!
The example of the conservatory is absolutely spot-on. I've seen so many people spending their equity, buying things they could never otherwise afford, completely ignoring warnings of a future house price fall. Someone close to me borrowed money to buy a car, spent that money on high-living, borrowed more to build a conservatory, spent much of that on other stuff, had to borrow more to finish the conservatory, and is now talking about getting a further loan to buy a TT...That person is a teacher and should know better
There are a lot of ill-educated and naiive people in the world, and that's sad, but what angers me is the fact that itis all been fuelled by the money-grabbing irresponsibility of the lenders and the tax-grabbing antics of the Labour Government. As for estate agents, they have made fortunes out of the house price boom for doing pretty much nothing. I have no time for them.
So, I have absolutely no sympathy for people who are now crying about house-prices falling, negative equity, rising costs of borrowing etcetera. This was all
entirely predictable. I've been saying it for awhile and have no economic training.
We bought a house at the tail end of last year despite the current situation because we worked out what we could afford irrespective of what the mortgage lenders were offering (three times what we wanted in fact). Unfortunately, we're probably the exception to the rule and those who borrowed enough to buy the ludicrously over-priced properties will be the first to go bankrupt.
The only thing that annoys me about the downturn is the effect it will inevitably have on the aviation industry if there is a recession.
I'm all heart me...
