So what's going to happen to the Dollar then?

[BJWoods]

NoelWatson said:

BJWoods said:

ACEparts_com said:

jeevescat said:

That says the US problem is an over supply of housing units, a situation we do not have.

So I do not see how the problem across the pond is necessarily going to ocurr here.

Funnily enough I remember reading that their boom was due to tight planning restrictions that reduced supply. The UK doesn't have a shortage of properties just an excess supply of credit.

sorry but you've got that arse about face..

the us has massive over supply, lots of available, partly brought about by very easy credit (ninja loans) which generated large ammount of speculative building

the uk
has a huge shortfall in houses being built, partly planning, partly developers sitting on land banks, small island.

I'm not convinced that any of these arguments would stop the UK housing market heading south - didn't Japan have most of these in place when it tanked in the 90's?

they went a bit more extreme on the valuations, ie hundred year mortgages, etc,etc,etc. this credit 'crunch' will have proabbaly made the lenders a bit more risk averse...

that said a good property ina good location will proably hold in value, and still increase, albeit a bit more slowly...

speculative flat building in northern cities, ( ie sunderland) with a fallling population, and similar type developments will suffer...

B

[walm]

srebbe64 said:

Anyway, back on topic. I've looked into it over the weekend and it's possible to buy a very decent three room Condo, in the best parts of Manhattan, for less that £300k. As such, today I've arranged to view a bunch of places next month.

The housing market in the USA is oversupplied and the Dollar is weak. Both of these things make buying property quite attractive. I'm in NY for just four nights and this is gonna cost (circa) £1200 for a hotel. As such, I will simply get my company to bill me for the same rent (£300 a night) whenever anyone goes there and this will avoid paying hotel bills!

If housing is oversupplied then prices will fall. Which is NOT a good time to buy IMHO.
As already mentioned Manhattan prices march to a very different tune to the rest of the country.
Have you really done the math?
Are you buying in cash or credit? If credit then what sort of rate are you being offered?
What happens if your company doesn't send someone over for a few months? Can you cover the outgoings?
What if you change job?
Will all your colleagues want to stay in that location? What if there are two of them?
Who is going to maintain it and change the sheets etc..?

[srebbe64]

walm said:

srebbe64 said:

Anyway, back on topic. I've looked into it over the weekend and it's possible to buy a very decent three room Condo, in the best parts of Manhattan, for less that £300k. As such, today I've arranged to view a bunch of places next month.

The housing market in the USA is oversupplied and the Dollar is weak. Both of these things make buying property quite attractive. I'm in NY for just four nights and this is gonna cost (circa) £1200 for a hotel. As such, I will simply get my company to bill me for the same rent (£300 a night) whenever anyone goes there and this will avoid paying hotel bills!

If housing is oversupplied then prices will fall. Which is NOT a good time to buy IMHO.
As already mentioned Manhattan prices march to a very different tune to the rest of the country.
Have you really done the math?
Are you buying in cash or credit? If credit then what sort of rate are you being offered?
What happens if your company doesn't send someone over for a few months? Can you cover the outgoings?
What if you change job?
Will all your colleagues want to stay in that location? What if there are two of them?
Who is going to maintain it and change the sheets etc..?

We're a cash buyer. The break-even figure is about 8 days per month - we're about there. I'm of the view that the Dollar will strengthen in time so now's a good time to buy. We generally send one person at a time. Our NY office in right in the middle of Manahattan, we'll buy something very close.

A worst case scenario is that we have cheap NY accomodation for a few years and then we sell it. As such, I've decided to go for it!