If National wins ...

[Major von Tempsky]

And that's my concern with this whole affordable housing thing. If people cant get into a house now with super low interest rates and low unemployment how are they going to cope when they have been levered into a house only to find interest rates escalate, property values fall and the job market doesn't look that great. All inevitabilities in the lifetime of a mortgage. We've lived through the high rate times - that's a bit different from knowing only low rates.

Which are all inevitabilities with the current Green/Labour/NZF coalition.

[Blakie]

As Janet Yellen has said we are unlikely to experience another financial market crash in our lifetimes.

I'll remind you that in 2007 the federal reserve was blind to the looming GFC.
In Jan 2007, the then chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke's said "one of the biggest risks is that the economy might grow stronger than expected". In March of the same year, they said the worst of the housing crisis is over.
They had absolutely no idea of what was happening then, and they don't today.

tick, tick tick......

[westerly]

I dont remember it being easy. 1989 mortgage rates were 16%.

Maybe it was easy because interest rates were trending down from 18.8 in 1987 and 17% in 1983. Not as easy when Craic was in housing. 5.5% in the mid 60's

1957 interest rates were around 5%

My mistake, probably nearer the mid sixties as Craic has intimated.

westerly

[minimoke]

My mistake, probably nearer the mid sixties as Craic has intimated.

westerly

Ah the 1960's. An excellent decade if I may say so myself. Heres a bit of what was happening around then:

“To increase the flow of suburban housing, the government introduced the Group Building Scheme. Builders constructed houses in groups of six or more and those that were unsold two months after they were completed were purchased by the state at a prearranged price. Plans and builders were vetted to maintain high standards. Some 20,000 homes were built under the scheme, which helped 1960s mass-housing firms such as Neill Housing get started.

The Labour government of 1957–60 continued support for home ownership, and in 1959 gave low-income families the right to capitalise their family benefit (have it paid in advance) to provide a deposit on a house. Together with low-interest state mortgages, this enabled many low-income families to become homeowners. Between 1951 and 1966 the national rate of home ownership rose from 61% to 69%.”

[Sgt Pepper]

And that's my concern with this whole affordable housing thing. If people cant get into a house now with super low interest rates and low unemployment how are they going to cope when they have been levered into a house only to find interest rates escalate, property values fall and the job market doesn't look that great. All inevitabilities in the lifetime of a mortgage. We've lived through the high rate times - that's a bit different from knowing only low rates.

Reasonable observation MM

We have a generation, including bank CEOs who have no institutional memory of interest rates in double figures. Rob Muldoon, Roger Douglas, 87 share crash, 20% interest rates, all ancient history to them. There is a danger, as the saying goes, if you don't study history and you are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past

[fungus pudding]

And that's my concern with this whole affordable housing thing. If people cant get into a house now with super low interest rates and low unemployment how are they going to cope when they have been levered into a house only to find interest rates escalate, property values fall and the job market doesn't look that great. All inevitabilities in the lifetime of a mortgage. We've lived through the high rate times - that's a bit different from knowing only low rates.

Not so sure about that. Interest rates and commodity prices are opposite ends of a see-saw. I'd far rather buy a house when interest rates are sky high. Prices settle depending on affordability - 400,000 @ 5% is the same as 200,000 @ 10%. And houses will settle to that general level of affordability. That's a fair chunk of the reason for escalating prices throughout the western world in the last few years. Safe to buy when interest is expensive - risky when rates are low.

[elZorro]

Well, so far, Jacinda hasn't put a foot wrong.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11937552

[777]

Who reads anything Audrey Young writes? She is as one eyed as you eZ. She should be relegated to that left wing epistle you quoted so often.

[elZorro]

Who reads anything Audrey Young writes? She is as one eyed as you eZ. She should be relegated to that left wing epistle you quoted so often.

That's not right, for years I didn't record much she'd written because it was fairly anti-Labour. But her attitude seemed to change before the elections.

Bill says goodbye from the PM's office. She's a 'great little country' now after National has run the ship for nine years. Bill didn't mention the mountain of debt and overstretched resources he's left behind for someone else to tidy up.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politi...-s-office.html

[777]

That's not right, for years I didn't record much she'd written because it was fairly anti-Labour. But her attitude seemed to change before the elections.

Bill says goodbye from the PM's office. She's a 'great little country' now after National has run the ship for nine years. Bill didn't mention the mountain of debt and overstretched resources he's left behind for someone else to tidy up.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politi...-s-office.html

Well watch carefully the mountain of debt. Your beloved Labour have already stated they will not be paying it down as fast as National was going to. The amount they plan to spend appears unlimited. Joyce could prove to be right in the end.