harb wrote:
Always the dreamer, you may want to go over your previous dreams since you started posting here and see how close to the mark they were.

Ok, so interest rates didn't go up – you were right about that. I expected governments and banks to deal with this credit crisis sensibly – silly me.That said, you claimed house prices wouldn't d…[Read more]

Harb,I'm only going to make a couple of points. We have been over much of htis ground before:)Tumbarumba is still a very cool name for a town.If the bottom keeps rising and the top, the middle stagnates and the top falls – what do think is going to be the end result? Every house, no matter how well made and how big the plot it's on, costing the…[Read more]

Personally, 1Winner, I only ever want to own one residential property at a time – a house in which to live. I have a belief that residential property is for the shelter of members of society and not investment. Of course landlords need to exist but they should either be a governement body or heavilly regulated. I know this view is more soc…[Read more]

harb wrote:
As long as you fixed your rate for 10 years what's the problem ? Ops, I forgot…You don't like to make a profit out of speculating. In that case you just wait for the hyperinflation to be over then borrow from the bank to buy your house from a speculator who didn't mind owing money to the bank during the hyperinflation period and…[Read more]

harb wrote:
So really what you are saying is that as long as you are the one who makes a profit everything is in balance even if you were not productive and speculated that prices will rise but if someone else tries to do that by improving the property and making it more efficient then a correction is required? So what happened to your comment a…[Read more]

harb wrote:
Have a look at Mt Lawley, South Perth, Vic. Park and other suburbs near Perth that used to have houses on 700sqm+ blocks using Google Earth and see how many do they still have the traditional lawn in their backyard and how many have grown an extra house in their backyards.  Short of bulldozing a few of them and building 20 story…[Read more]

harb wrote:
Suppose that you took a loan and bought a house then 20 years later you decide to sell it. Is it wrong to sell if for more then you paid for it, eg. cost + interest paid over the 20 years+ rates ?

 No. Zero sum, balance is maintained.

harb wrote:
Would you have bought this house if you expected to sell it for less then you paid…[Read more]

harb wrote:
So FHB won't afford to buy it and will have to rent it, how is that going to to cause the bottom to fall out ?

Because smart investors are staying away at the moment. The governement might move in and buy some areas for public housing stock – at discount prices.

harb wrote:
And they going to leave on a park bench ? Come on, you can…[Read more]

1Winner wrote:
Yet when it comes to money it appears that it is OK to think wrong of those who have succeeded, and to lable as greed anything that goes over our own comfort zone.Not that there is anything wrong with it!

It's OK to think wrong of those that make money in non productive or speculative means. It is wrong to think wrong of those…[Read more]

$150k for 1/8 of an acre 60km from the city is not budget. I know someone who just got a place in Mt Lawley for 500k on a 700m2 block and they still paid too much.With all the governement is spending trying to keep unemployment low, how much do you think they have to spare for increased rent assistance. Aged pensioners were lucky to get a $30 a…[Read more]

harb wrote:
How will the bottom fall out of a $400K market if you need $500K to replace it and because of increased population numbers there is an increase in demand ? 

Some ideas follow. Some could be prolonged but some are impossible to avoid in the short term. I will note those with an *1 – FHOG boost gets taken away.2 – Unemployment k…[Read more]

Ubisoft wrote:
I agree. I feel that a lot of people are not selling into this sort of market at the moment, adopting a wait-and-see approach.

If you want to upgrade an entry level PPOR, you have from now to June. Beyond that, you won't get a truly profitable sale for 5 years at least.

wealth4life.com wrote:
Hello 888,read read read and get educated … the market at the bottom hasn't bottomed but the market at the top and middle is coming down further.

Which means, quite literally, all that remains is for the bottom to fall out of the market.

harb wrote:
So how many below $350K in Homebush Bay ? For the price of one unit there I could get almost 2 in Bankstown (or a house on 600sqm block) which is about the same distance from CBD.  The shortage is of well priced apartments and of land. If price is no object man can always build upwards, the sky is the limit, but God doesn't make…[Read more]

james237 wrote:
…and then at the end of the year what strategy would you suggest? Presumably assuming the market has slowed or fallen 5-10%?

Depends.Ultimately you are looking for a PPOR right? Something to live in long term? Long term you are never going to loose that much. Eventually wages will inflate, the economy will recover and houses…[Read more]

Hold onto it – it will go alot further at the end of the year. You are in a good position, so long as both of your jobs are secure.

Playa Chicken wrote:
I'm of the "buy now" camp if it is already positively geared, it's only going to get better as rents rise.The problem with waiting for interest rates to drop further is how will you know when they've bottomed out?  You wont' know until they start going up again .   Same for house prices.I reckon if it's positive today, BU…[Read more]

devo76 wrote:
Not there yet. WA to hurt more than other states. But on average i would say another 10 to 15% drop across Australia. Not a 40% +drop thats for sure. What do i base that on. Nothing. Just what i see when i take a step back and look at whats going on around me.

10-15% + 5-10% already experienced = 25%. A year ago, you lot thought…[Read more]

WJ Hooker wrote:
Israel has compulsory army service and it works over there. When we get in charge will fix it.

They also recruit women into armed roles, don't they?I heard that they found in large skirmishes that mixed sex battle groups were a liability as the men always stopped to try and help injured women, instead of advancing at the target.

water wrote:
Am i missing something?

Just the fact that it is a currently deflating asset class….