Are prices shooting up where you are?

[Focusanddetermination]

Just that really. I'm in a small Midlands town, have a high amount of activity and prices shooting up in the past few weeks even.

I thought people would be more hesitant with a looming recession, but it's almost the opposite.

@Desiringonlychild I actually find the quant person believable. IMO the other account is solely used to troll and be rude to others. So that's maybe a reason why people may have more than one username; one as their main, and one to just target others? Who knows. That said, both users were strictly of the same view; that only a moron would purchase property in 2020. And both users are very, very vocal about this.

But I take your point that some do change their name for privacy reasons which is fair enough.

Thankfully, I'd like to think that most users of MN are sensible. Certainly, the majority that I've come across appear to be.

p.s. I didn't realise East Finchley was more expensive than central Finchley.

@Smallgoon

Yes - I agree that it's similar in style, viewpoint, tone and language. They both number their points too.

The £1.4 million boat thing is hilarious btw

Yup.. And as you noted, the whole Ab Fab 'dahhhling' was to try to throw people off the scent. I think plainsailing is supposed to be a middle-aged lady of leisure who quaffs Bollinger on her boat, whereas quant is the city worker, waiting desperately for dream property to be halved in value...

Who knows how many more aliases there are...

@Smallgoon east Finchley is zone 3, Finchley central is zone 4. The reason for the name is historic. East Finchley doesn't actually mean it's in the East, it's a reference to the fact that the train station used to be on east end road But the locals didn't want it called East end as they didn't want to be associated with the East end in east London. So they called it east Finchley. I think Finchley central is a reference to it being a central terminus- even today it has a separate tube connection to mill hill east.

Zone 3 Vs zone 4 has a price differential.Also east Finchley is where bishops avenue is but no idea of actual impact on ordinary houses. Also can walk to Highgate woods and Hampstead heath from East Finchley so that may make it a bigger selling point for the people priced out of those areas. Finchley central has a lovely park but the high street is more functional - big Tesco superstore.

@BeijingBikini

It's hardly a brag, it's relevant and 3m in London is a small portfolio

Lol, how the other half live!

It's just the world we live in. London attracts the world's tallent and an average house is worth over a million. Some people were virtually given these house with right to buy a few decades ago!

It's worth remembering the content of this thread is going to be self prophesying one way or another, we'll find out in the next month one way or another.
House prices are extremely emotive as they affect us all. No one likes to be told an asset they own is going to decrease in value because some take that as an inference they've made a wrong choice. So it's understandable why some of the comments are getting 'defensive'
As I've stated I do think house prices will have a significant drop, but of course I may be wrong.
But let's all be honest if house prices are down in 18months time I hardly think people will be thinking, OMG how did that happen!!!!

meant next few months not month!!!!

Quant was also being extremely rude, personal and childish to a poster previously (guru?) just for having a different opinion to them - that the Tory government has vested interest in keeping house prices high, and would pull out an unlimited number of tricks to keep it that way. That's also a valid opinion, and there's a way to debate opinions without calling the other person a moron/idiot/stupid.

I'm always dubious of people's supposed identities and jobs online. Someone smart enough to be earning 100k at a bank would surely know how to debate without resorting to namecalling.

Most likely it's someone from HPC trolling, then going back to HPC to update the "opinions turning on Mumsnet" thread.

All FTBs are hoping for a huge HPC, I personally would like to win the lottery, just because I want it doesn't mean it will happen.

Have been following this thread closely as we are confidently buying a house as a FTB with a 15% deposit.

My opinion is that the cut in stamp duty is more of a stroke of genius than its been given credit for and is encouraging a lot of people that may be heading into financial difficulty in the future to sell now while prices are seeing an unexpected increase.

The furlough scheme has staved off unemployment for the most part, and given people a warning of what's to come.

Furthermore banks are using furloughed salary for affordability calculations, and those salaries may be more reflective of what people can reasonably earn in the future.

So essentially banks are being careful about borrowers not over extending, while many of the people that would be forced to sell in the future (due to employment circumstances) can sell now and either downsize or rent. The stamp duty cut has really encouraged that because otherwise many people may put off their sale if the market was declining, which would only compound problems down the line.

This notion that sh*t is going to hit the fan after the furlough scheme cannot be ignored, but I don't think it will affect house prices as much as certain people are suggesting.

Also it's hilarious that quant person was outed. I remember them saying they have posted screenshots of this thread on their work Slack account. I hope that wasn't a petty lie to antagonise the other person because the thought of their colleagues seeing how things unfolded is delightful!

Smallgoon good detective work. I did think thequant = hpcrasher but actually the writing is a bit more intelligent than most of the idiots on there. I do think it’s a bloke though. And quite a lot of americanisms, not that it particularly means anything.

@ThroughThickAndThin01 I got major mansplaining vibe from the quant!

@completelycoffee the quant thing is hilarious! Partly because it was so unexpected!

Good point re: stamp duty being a stroke of genius and helping people move and offset the issues of any potential financial difficulty.
@BeijingBikini - what is HPC?

Housepricecrash forum, they troll here sometimes.

I'm not sure the page 12 posts are evidence that they are the same person or am I missing something?

I asked @plainsailing01 a direct question, too.

Quant is very very obviously a man. Good spot on the sockpuppeting, which is against MN rules and usually results in at least a temporary ban.

" I got major mansplaining vibe from the quant"
I have to admit I did too - they came off exactly like a male ex-colleague of mine actually. I found them hard to work with at first as their confidence (bordering on cockiness) threw me and made me doubt my own knowledge. Took me a while to realise that sometimes they were full of shit and didn't know better at all. But women can be like this too, just less common.

I also would find it unusual for someone in this field to describe an uncertain event as guaranteed. Highly likely, high probability etc yes - but guaranteed? It's pretty unusual language for someone in a profession which requires caveats and clear explanation of potential risks. And whilst posting on mumsnet is not giving professional advice that language usage becomes ingrained.

I'd also expect a better understanding of different financial objectives and utility (especially regarding the purchase of a home to be lived in which has quite different practical and emotional drivers compared to other investments) and why people might choose to buy even if there is a high probability of a short term loss in asset value.

@ThroughThickAndThin01

thequant are you on HPC by any chance? Your posts have a certain ring about them.

I noticed this earlier in the thread... Quant ignored it. I didn't even know what HPC was but it makes sense now.

Oh and for what it's worth, they're also newbie111

See for yourselves:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3959832-0-Stamp-duty-threshold-increasing-to-500k?pg=5

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3889123-When-the-house-price-will-reflect-the-impact-of-economy-tanking

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3828887-Please-help-First-house-in-Finchley-Central-or-Kingston

Same tone, same style of posting, same rhetoric, refers to themselves as a 'quanto', wants to purchase in Finchley...

Quite sad really.

@Smallgoon

I actually took newbie seriously!

But now I can see it - they both have a £850k budget, both quants, same property search area as quanto, same viewpoint on property crash and almost the same level of certainty of a house price crash.

So strange. That is just so 2020.

there is a forum for house prices crash....seriously..wow

would be interesting if it really was a troll..a bit sad really

I think it's definitely a troll, a sad made up persona who has probably never set foot in a bank. Nothing is certain in life and anyone who deals with mathematical modelling of something with a lot of complex variables would know that!

The obvious clue quant talks a load of nonsense is they’re a supposed city worker but they don’t seem worried about their own job. Which would be crazy. City workers aren’t buying in London ATM cos their job and location security is not great.

@Greenhats10 it's full of people who have been waiting so long for a house price crash that they could have paid off a mortgage in that time

that's true..pandemic or not with Brexit coming you'd think that a few more city jobs will go -which is unfortunate but would make me question job security