We’re not about to jump the pond fulltime (at least not yet). But it is a bit eerie, or to some perhaps comforting, to see the parallels in the U.K. market as mortgage rates rise (now at 6.63 percent for the equivalent of a two-year ARM).
The U.K. is skirting a recession as house prices fall, oil costs rise to a record and lenders refuse to pass on the Bank of England’s three interest-rate cuts since December. Policy makers, who make a rate decision tomorrow, said last month that they considered increasing borrowing costs after inflation accelerated to the fastest in a decade.
“This is doom and gloom,” said Alan Clarke, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London. “The housing market is in freefall and unemployment is rising. The Bank of England’s credibility is in question with the worst peak in inflation in its history, but there are a lot of reasons not to hike now.”
And now back to the “Supercities” discussion…
∙ U.K. Mortgage Rates Surge, Consumer Confidence Slumps [Bloomberg]
∙ Supercities Are Immune To Declines (At Least Until They’re Not) [SocketSite]
Cherio,
I am a realtor in England, and I do say, that prices have not come down at all in the REAL England.
Carry on!
^^ OK that was just intended as harmless fun from yesterday.
No need to respond to me, fluj, I know you never said it.
Oh I say chaps, how rude you all are to that nice Mr Fluj!
Wow, 6 years living in London and I neither heard the word “realtor” (estate agent) or “cheerio” (only in Ireland or way out of London).
Here is a pretty good webcast of the current state of London market. How does the current Central London market compare to SF?
http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=3619
hahahah. Nope. Nobody ever goaded anybody on here!
Funny as hell.
“realtor” – this word does not exist in the queen’s English, “cheerio” and “Oh I say” – this is so hilarious … no one says these things in London, where I lived for years and years !!
I saw an article that had some London prices at over $6,000 psf and it is considered the highest real estate in the world. Who knows if it accurate, it was on ABC news. Anyone know?
No offense fluj, but the Edward Alexander Flujes III was a classic. Who knew you had a link to landed gentry 🙂
Viewlover,
As per the link below, I quoted extracts from a Business Week article that said the same thing about London. Given the strength of the pound, and the influx of wealthy Russians, Indians and others, it’s likely to be true of portions of areas like Knightsbridge and Mayfair.
https://socketsite.com/archives/2008/07/supercities_are_immune_to_declines_at_least_until_theyr.html#comments
No offense taken. It was totally funny and besides Tipster isn’t mean spirited at all.
Viewing the superfluous attmepts at pre-emptive framing of articles and espeically posts around here lately has me thinking that my usefulness has run its course, tho. All dialogue is pretty much always going to be contentious and you know what, it’s boring. It detracts from others enjoyment too, I think. So I’ll be posting here less. If you’re interested check out thefrontsteps.com where I’ll be a lot less anonymously in the near future.
“I’ll be a lot less anonymously in the near future.”
Does this mean you will soon reveal your identity?
I already did before but not on here. There are too many realtor bashers here who would accuse me of solicitation. But yeah, I’m soon dropping my nom de plume in favor of my real name over on another site. I’m gonna drive content too.
occasionally drive some content, that is
One of the most common occurrences on this site is how people rant and rave at how overpriced everything is and the sellers will never get anything close to their asking price. These discussion go on and on and then very quietly, something sells at close to the asking price, and there’s hardly a mention of it and no further comments.
Good luck to you Fluj! I’ll look for your on your other site.
“Does this mean you will soon reveal your identity?”
don’t remember the thread but i think fluj was outed as this guy a long time ago:
http://garrisonrealty.net/agents.html#kenneth
Who knew one of America’s key exports was housing bubbles?
Anyway, check out http://www.home.co.uk for a lot of good information on UK prices…specific listings as well as macro trends.
As I said before, you COULD pay $6,000 per square foot in London if you wanted to. I’m sure the seller would be thrilled and probably laugh until they wet themselves. You could also pay $125 for a hamburger in Florida. But that doesn’t mean everyone does it or it’s market. Going rate in London seems to be less than half of that.
well less than half that would be less than $3,000 psf, a bargain.
Which, by the way, just proves that “real” San Francisco isn’t all that expensive anyway…