Mercedes

Thats fine if you move to a cheaper area, you come out laughing but don't forget everyone else house will have also gone up as well. So sometimes you cannot be better off. And of course you pay capital gains tax on the profit as well.

Mercedes

I worry about the next generation, even many of the 30 pluses I know are still not on the housing ladder and the only way will be inherting Mum & Dad's place.

M [/QUOTE]

Trouble is then you pay inheritance tax of 40% in taxes when they pop their cloggs, then if there is more than one child you have to divide it so sometimes it can help but may not still help them onto the housing ladder. I wonder if anyone has actually sat down and worked out how much they really pay for a house when you add up the interest over the years, sometimes you can pay 3 times what the house is worth by the time you have paid it off, so technically in some cases they haven't actually made any money on it.

Merlot

This is the frightening thing.

M

moneypenny20

Life's a bitch, and then you die Sorry. On a downer tonight.

Merlot

Sorry to hear you are down, yep life is a complete and utter cow most of the time . . . where is the happy medium!

Hope you feel better soon.

M

jad n rich

Interest rates dont just affect housing, did they overlook that

What are interest rates in the rest of the world, 3.75% - 5.5%, lets imagine interest rates in australia go to 9%, the entire world and its cat would want to invest in aussie dollars and the aussie dollar would go sky high, nice impact on a country already crippled with drought.

Immigration, tourism, exports, farmers and housing would all be stuffed unemployment would soar.

Likely hood of 9%

Storini

IHT in the UK is levied at 40% on assets over £275K. In Oz, IHT (or death duties) were abolished some years ago: this initiative was led by the QLD gov't I believe. Should an inherited asset be sold at a later date, then CGT would be due on the uplift between dates of acquisition and sale. Labor and the Greens want the re-introduction of IHT.

Canada also has no IHT, and the US is phasing it out the next few years; Swiss IHT rates are also very low. Pick where you pop your clogs!

Megalania

I was having a nice dreamy bath soaking in 9% cash and you pop all me bubbles!

Never know, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might go tits up, the Japanese might start to find US paper debt more risky than thought and not want to buy at low yields.

Megalania

"Let's say you bought a house in 1964 for £25,000 ($50,000) and sold it in 2004 for $500,000. That's a pretty impressive gain of 900 per cent. But guess what? It just keeps up with the rate of inflation over the 40 years, which averaged 5.9 per cent a year. That is, the real growth is zero."

Rising value: Don't bet your house on it

spalen

one thing that seems consistent is this forecast 9% interest rate... havent seen anyone contradicting that.

If you need a house to live in then buy one....