[satthackacibe]

I know that this can be political (Bear and Bull after all), but I thought it'd be best to put in EE.. If you don't think it belongs in EE, Id/Dusty, feel free to move it!

Recently, under my favourite moniker of FunkyLeprechaun (I wish I could change it here but "Zen" has stuck here... so I'll keep onto this one for now), I've been posting on a website dealing with the housing market (not many posts at the moment just lurking basically).

I have several questions:

How are the markets in the US?
What do you think were the causes of the market trouble in the US?
What do you think should occur to improve the market conditions in the US?

My hubby and I bought this house in March 2007 (nearly a year before Northern Rock went !%!%!%!%e) and finally closed in October 2007 (they were REALLY picky on our finances!).

I've seen house prices gradually fall since the Northern Rock crises. Currently, it is an 8% fall in the housing market (according to my hubby, but I think it's greater than that). An example of house prices falling is a terraced house going on the market at £239,995, then dropping to £229,995, and at the moment it's "offers around £210,000", My american in me automatically converts prices to dollars and that's now nearly 400,000 dollars for a small terraced house. It's a victorian and in one of the picturesque villages in a well known city.

To be honest with you, we did put down a 5% deposit on a regular terraced house (built 1960s and quite iconic in British lower middle class, if you do visit it's quite similar even in Cambridge and Oxford, just cheaper) that we agreed on at a price of £102,000. I said to my hubby, you know that's over 200,000 dollars for this house and that's EXPENSIVE!

Well, they no longer do 5% deposits. It's now the rule to do 20-25% for first time buyers and 10-20% for 2nd home buyers.

It's become increasingly difficult for people to get onto the housing market here now.

How are the markets now? Do they suck?