The Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis Blues

It ain’t the workin’ man’s blues, it ain’t the lovin’ blues … it’s the subprime mortgage crisis blues!
A catchy animated take on the US housing market from the Explanotions team on Current TV…

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What Would You Do With This?

I was browsing through our South West pages today in search of a wreck when I came across this three-sided curiosity.
It’s the entrance to a now defunct underground reservoir and was originally commissioned by the Duke of Bedfordshire (more here: Legendary Dartmoor).
Being a duke (ie: minted) he didn’t employ some local brickie to knock a [...]

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The Right Time To Buy?

Last summer – just as the Northern Rock storm broke – I was in the process of buying a flat in Brighton.
The deal dragged on and then eventually collapsed because the sellers were convinced that prices would just keep on rising – this despite my best efforts to explain that the market really was at [...]

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Anyone Know What’s Happening To Rents?

The Association of Residential Letting Agents has just published a new report on the Private Rented Sector.
Its author, Professor Michael Ball, argues that rents could rise by 10-15 per cent in 2008 and 2009.
Rents, he claims, will be especially strong in London and the South East where demand is highest, but will slide in northern [...]

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Are House Price Falls Bad News?

“Evan, EVAN, could I just finish answering the question if that’s ok….”
Housing Minister Caroline Flint was on a hiding to nothing this morning as she tried to avoid questions about the Government’s housing policy and the likelihood of actually building 3m new homes by 2020.
She was, however, given a bit of a mauling by Evan [...]

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Trashy Property TV

“Most [TV] programmes appear to be fronted by presenters with no grasp of or interest in serious property issues and most formats do not allow room for serious discussion preferring instead to focus on aesthetics rather than anything more meaningful…
“We Brits are endlessly fascinated by property. But surely I can’t be the only one who [...]

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Yo, Dave! Where’s The Eco Carrot?

“If we find out that our neighbours, or households similar to ours, are using half as much energy as we are, then we’re much more likely to bring our own consumption down in line.
“So I can announce today that a Conservative Government will make sure every gas and electricity bill contains information that allows each [...]

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Dogs vs Grand Designs

“I have met quite a few architects around the world over the years, and few appear to be dog lovers … Perhaps it’s because dogs are messy and chaotic creatures, while architects are generally tidy and ordered?
“Le Corbusier had a dog during his purist phase. It was called Pinceau, or “paintbrush” in English.
“When Pinceau died, [...]

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Price Rise My Ar**!

Some of our readers have scoffed at a story we published on Wednesday: House Prices Rose In April.
They think we’re trying to talk up the market, distort the truth and deny the reality of what’s currently happening to house prices.
Gareth Evans writes: “Amazing that you are still trying to hoodwink the populace and attempt to [...]

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Google: Your New Landlord?

How would you feel about renting a flat from Google or Apple?
That may be on the cards if the property industry succeeds in convincing the Government to back the introduction of build-to-let schemes in the UK.
Build-to-let encourages big business to buy whole blocks and rent them out as branded accommodation.
So instead of paying your rent [...]

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