pgtips

Is the credit crunch causing panic in the US like it is starting to bite in Uk ?
Have you been affected by hard to sell real estate, Job loss, general depressed economic outlook ?

What is your action plan to beat general economic meltdown ?

MsElui

it started in the US mate - not the UK. Its been biting here for ages. Houses being repossessed left right and centre. Lots of job losses etc too.

Englishmum

Virtually everyone in my street works in financial services; the guy opposite works for Morgan Stanley (and he said to me last week that "it's going to get worse": next door to him the husband is with Goldman Sachs and the wife with JP Morgan, another with (or maybe was with) Lehman Bros, one friend is with with Barclays Capital, another one with Morgan Stanley, next door neighbour is with Citicorp, an English friend is with HSBC and others are with smaller Wall St stockbroking companies.

Everyone is anxious.

My husband's company is a financial services information provider and they're getting contracts cancelled by the investment banks and brokers....they may be laying off people soon in London and New York.

I guess my next door neighbours (on the other side of our house) are happy though....they're both psychiatrists and I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting busier with anxious clients who are after some Prozac...

(One expat Aussie friend is a VP in Finance for a timeshare & hotel company; of course no-one is buying timeshares right now and he says he's so glad he's on an L1-A visa and didn't get a green card, because if he gets the pink slip (possibly by Christmas) the company has to pay all his shipping expenses to go home to Oz!)

I've noticed a lot of the smaller shops in our town and neighbouring ones are going out of business. I haven't even been to our local shopping mall since before the Summer, the only shopping I'm doing is for food (or birthday gifts) and having to pay for necessary things like car servicing and household repairs and maintainance.

My best friend is desperately trying to sell (or rent out) her house so she can be reunited with her 10 year old back home in Australia; she has a beautiful 6-bedroomed fully renovated Victorian house (with a large porch) just 15 miles west of Manhatten in a gorgeous commuter town (same one as where Ridski lives who posts here). In July it went on the market for $639k. Yesterday she sent me a text saying she had reduced it to $549k.... It's an absolute steal....I just hope she soon finds a buyer:

http://www.adlerbenjamin.com/MyHomeD...&HomeId=738206

Giantaxe

Problem is, it's probably only a "steal" in comparison to what houses like it used to sell at. In the current credit environment, she may well just be "chasing the market down".

Bob

Hide.

But then I've already been made redundant....but, I was able to get a large credit limit on a new credit card....without applying for it

pgtips

Pretty much the same situation in the UK, a lot of very anxious people at the moment, and people buying just the essentials.

pgtips

Ain't that the truth, even with the price reductions people are struggling to raise the finance to buy these bargains. Cash is king now and those with cash want to hold onto it.

Englishmum

Absolutely. My friend's job ends in a few days and she's a single parent (the ex is a deadbeat and has never paid a penny to support his children and has returned Down Under) and she's so desperate to get back to OZ.

She's now thinking of trying to borrow money (possibly a home equity line of credit) to pay the mortgage and taxes if she can't find a buyer or a tenant quickly.

Giantaxe

If she has little equity in the house, she might be better off just walking away. After all, a US credit record is kind of irrelevant if she's not living in the US. If she has equity, then renting might be her only realistic option unles she's willing to price under what comparables have (very) recently sold for.

BritGuyTN

I agree

somethings are worth walking away from despite how much of a bad taste it leaves

johnh009

Oh, the answer is simple, like the Romans said, "People get the government they deserve".

franc111s

I've known people where these offers are being reversed. So if your not using it, you could lose it. Just a heads up!

franc111s

And BEFORE anyone gets political, this is not about a political party. If you've been watching the wrong news channel, you will have a biased but let me try what I think... (I do think it's about politics NOW by, the way (i.e. the fix!!)..

*I* did *NOT* invest in technology companies in the .com boom. I didn't make any money, nor lose any money. This was under the Clinton watch. It was ALL a con, a huge con of thieves and liars running top companies, being paid too much. I saw it coming. 100xpre-money share prices was a JOKE.. shame many were not left laughing. But everyone got greedy.

Then came 9/11 a few months after Bush was elected.

Don't forget Enron and all the Legtistation and Sarbanes to protect us from these thieves.

Now we HAVE ALL BEEN ROBBED yet again by thieves. Thieves on Wall Street that conned people into thinking their business were sound when in fact their companies were built with melting marsh-mellows disguised as BRICKS. These "smart" bankers are Wall-street were liars.

When people talk about the market coming BACK you have to think THIS.. Coming back to WHAT when it WASN'T REAL in the first place. We have stock prices before the .com (Mar 1998 was a date when the Dow was at 8600 points like TODAY)... SO, in 10 years we have moved nowhere because we didn't go anywhere (unless you believe the con artists). This isn't about just the USA, even ICELAND got greedy and is virtually backrupt. The UK, Germany they are all falling. This is not about the cost of IRAQ which pales into insignificance.

Now I do BLAME the GOVERNMENTS for their oversight which was non-existent. They must get rid of ALL of the players at the top, in the companies and the GOVERNMENT. This was not only one big fraud, the Government were either stupid enough to NOT see this coming or worse, NIAVE to ignore it.

I am fuming today because in the UK. My sister was 2 mins away from completing on her house having exchanged 2 weeks before. Now one of the buyers has pulled out (I'm guessing because he had his money in stocks). She is being sued by the people whom house she was buying (retiring in Devon). She literally had her furniture in the removal truck when it all collapsed and she called me in tears. Whow, this is all a shxt... scary stuff.

pejpm1

Wow, you really sound like you know what you are talking about...

TruBrit

omg what a dilemma...poor woman! hopefully the vendors will calm down and wont sue.