Is there anything the government wouldn't control in your utopia world ?

That is socialist/communism propagana talk at its worst

No obviously we dont have a property bubble ha, property is different in australia, because in the lucky country prices always go up, and we have fantastic quality houses, people who say there is a bubble are uneducated because land and houses are in a shortage, thus demand and supply is making them more expensive.

Even if we did have a bubble it wouldn’t make a difference because we sell petrified wood to China

Unemplment is low and pies taste better with tomato sauce which makes property appreciate during the mid term

People say there has been falling prices this year, I say there will be a soft landing

Once confidence in the property market returns probably in the later end of this year, expect clearance rates to soar

We are at the beginning of another great property boom ppl, expect to see massive returns during the next 2-3 years

The fundamentals are just ripe in this present buyers market !

Wow, dollar bellow parity now, Just goes to show what investors really think of Australia in times of uncertainty

I believe that the swiss franc is the nest of safety investors will run to, Not the aussie

Check out these charts

http://aud.kurs24.com/chf/graph/?q=365

While the stock market is getting hammered im still making massive gains on my silver.

The world economy should have had a massive crash back during the good old "GFC"  Remember ? when Kevin handed out cheques to everyone for a G to buy a new plasma ?

Instead of letting capitalism sort out the bad from the good, Our socialist ministers intervened, (stacking the domino's even higher with more debt) which they call stimulating,  See our government says one thing and does the opposite, Stimulating would be lowering taxes, Though they call stimulating making the debt ball chained to our feet even heavier.

I like this parable

"To presume that productivity would multiply thanks to government largess is the equivalent of assuming that a thief could aid a convenience store by first stealing $20 from the store, then returning later in the day to spend it. Logic tells us that no stimulation results from money simply changing hands."

You can't have it both ways, Everybody wants the massive 20% speculative gain on gains every year, They want to use capitalism to leverage themselves and prosper like we do under the free market, But we don't want to get disciplined through losses.

The losses are far wide and will eventually hit home, Its just a matter of time until it happens, These debt borrowing's, stimulus packages and quantitative easing debacles DO NOT HELP US, they only prolong the inevitable and make the ultimate downturn harder and longer then it has to be. Why do you think the great depression lasted so long and was so painful ? it wasn't just by chance. It was caused by the same interference we have today just in different ways, Back then they tried to regulate food prices and it caused people to starve to death.

The majority of people including people in top positions of power like Ben Bernanke believe WW2 ended the depression in america though its not true, It was the deregulation caused by the government being "busy at war". If interferience in the markets worked then our economy would be fixed by now, Though obviously what has failed to fix the problem in the past is not going to suddenly work now when things are many times worse.

When people like me say that "the stock market" or the "property" market is in general overpriced we are called "DOOMS DAYERS" or "DOOM and GLOOM" pessimists, Though I believe people should be looking at the correction as a very positive thing, A way of fixing our economy.

The sooner the market can be left alone without government interference the sooner prices can change, jobs that we don't need can be lost and new investment can be made for the future which will improve conditions for everyone.

one example is property, If you work in the building industry like I do then you will obviously know how bleak things are, many builders I know who are old men now have told me that they have "NEVER" in there life seen construction this quite

7x wage earning accommodation is not affordable which is having a negative effect now on the trades which are linked to this sector, If property crashed it wouldn't be long until our industry could recover.

We need capitalism to be allowed to take its course, expunge the bad investment, purge the unnecessary jobs and start over fresh much stronger.

Though I don't think our governments will allow what needs to be done to happen, instead taking us down the very long and dark hole and letting our whole economy sink with the entire ship.

Scenario 1:

Income: $2000 week

Debt service per week on a $110,000 loan at 110% LVR @ 10% Interest : $230.50

Percentage of income to service debt = 11.52%

Scenario 2:

Income: $800 week

Debt service per week on a $400,000 loan at 80% LVR @ 5% Interest: $539.19

Percentage of income to service debt = 67.39%

Which one would you consider to be over leveraged ?

Yes, Our dollar is stronger then other currency's but I think a lot of that strength is stigma from "Australia has a never ending mining boom"

If you want to see what China is doing with our resources check here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIzbMT2NVDA  .. though that is a topic of its own.

Interest rates are still at historic lows and everybody is feeling the pain.. The retail sector is coming apart because people are already maxed with debt and spending a historically high percentage of there earnings on servicing this debt

How would people fair paying off there $600k Mc Mansion if rates where closer to normal levels, like say 10% ?

Yet at the same time, Interest rates can't stay where they are,  with inflation increasing investors will turn else where and bonds will require higher yields.

Though if interest rates rise much more, well.. that's when you will probably see the cookie start to seriously crumble

I think we need to feel the pain and purge some of the bad investment in our economy so we can get over this downturn and continue on, Though I don't think the government will allow negative GDP to happen and will step in with "stimulus" to "save the day"

You have seen the government try to keep the property market propped up for years now, FHBG went from $7000 up to $21000 for new homes

The Qld state government has now introduced a $10,000 building "boost"

And the Federal government is pumping millions in to the NRAS scheme to apparently make housing "affordable"

I would like to hear Steves personal opinion on whether interest rates will rise or fall over the coming year and what effect this will have on property prices ?

Maybe its less to do with the media and more to do with the fact that getting $350 bucks a week rent on a house that costs $650 a week to hold onto isn’t such a good investment after all. I think ppl are slowly waking up to the fact that property in general is far overvalued

Our debt levels in real terms are double what they where just before the great depression.

You may have already seen some high end property sometimes sell for half price  eg: 4 mill property sell for 2 mill

I think its entirely possible that you could,  in some cases see the same type of deals done on average houses.

Our debt binge we have been on since the 1980's is so insane it has to unwind, and many people will loose everything in the years to come, That is the true reason you have seen doubling property every so many years… The loans have got bigger and bigger and bigger and now we are at the point where you see the retail sector totally collapsing because house holds are spending a historically high percentage of there wages on servicing debt on there Mc Mansion.

I truly believe that in the mid term future, there will be awesome deals to be had, as the dog eat dog investors snap up real assets at a fraction of there historic high's

The people with large amouts of cash will reap the rewards while those who don't go bankrupt and loose everything won't be able to purchase any cheap property because they are so highly leveraged

So your saying that property will continue to compound by 7.5% every year doubling wage growth forever, Is that what your trying to say ?

Well just think about it for a second, Do you think a real estate agent showing you through a particular property is going to tell you what a bad buy it is ?

Do you think a finance broker is going to try and convince someone not to get a loan ?

Can you provide reasons as to why an Investor would want to take particular "Investing" advice from either a broker or real estate agent ?

Now don't confuse tailored advice concerning your profession with advice on investing before you answer my question