Generation X still suffering the consequences of the housing crash

A mortgage lender offers 100 percent mortgage and a little extra for furnishing the home, why not take it? This before the housing crash seemed like a fool-proof idea. House prices were continuously rising and real estate looked like a safe investment.

Then the housing market crashed. House prices dramatically dropped while unemployment rate was rising. Suddenly Generation X now has negative equity on a home. They’re owing more on a home than it’s actually worth. What do you do?

Generation Xers, classified being born between 1965 through 1984, had a majority out of a job or have had a huge pay cut and having negative equity on a home. Massive tax cuts and the expense of childcare has taken over the disposable income.

Living in a generation of spending culture, during the time of economic growth they did not think to save for retirement. Now …

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House prices are increasing now up to €1,000 a week, up from previous report

MyHome.ie just released a report than claims house prices are increasing more than the Daft.ie report. MyHome.ie report doubles Daft.ie’s findings, a rival website.

A greater focus on property prices in Dublin may be the reason for the vast difference in price increase especially because Dublin average monthly increase is more than €5,000.

The report also indicates the possible increase of prices are due to the Help-to-Buy scheme being reviewed for termination. Fear from first-time buyers are rushing them to buy houses before the cancellation of the scheme.

The Help-to-Buy scheme can provide tax rebates up to €20,000. The property prices nationally were up 8.9 year-on-year.

Conall MacCoille, author of report, said the huge inflation of house prices can be from job growth, high competition among homebuyers, and rising income. This as well as the Help-to-Buy scheme contributed to a rapid increase of house prices.

An increase of first-time buyer lending and relaxing of the mortgage lending regulations is also a factor.

MacCoille is predicting a rush of mortgage lending in 2017 if the Help-to-Buy scheme is phased out and the …

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Is there or is there not another housing bubble?

In reference to No evidence of another Irish housing bubble, IMF says by Peter Hamilton on 26 June 2017 in the Irish Times.

The answer is no but close monitoring is needed. A Washington-based company, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has confirmed there is no housing bubble in Ireland. Even with the quickly rising prices of property and an increase of mortgage approvals, IMF realizes this is significant but it is not a housing bubble… yet.

There is no statistics to show there is an imbalance of the pricing of houses. However, there is an increase demand for housing that could lead to an imbalance, especially with the Central Bank’s mortgage lender rules and the help-to-buy scheme for first timers. IMF has recommended close monitoring of the market to make sure a bubble is not formed.

The likeliness of this increase of housing demand should …

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Help-to-buy incentive under scrutiny

This past Sunday, current Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said on RTE’s The Week in Politics that the Help-to-Buy initiative introduced by his predecessor is currently under review. Since its introduction in January under former Finance Minister Michael Noonan and former Housing Minister Simon Coveney, the Help-to-Buy initiative has already received nearly 7,000 applicants and has successfully helped a great percentage of them with the purchase or building of their first home. However, the initiative has recently come under fire for exacerbating the problems it intended to solve, and there is speculation that it may be dissolved.

 

The purpose of the Help-to-Buy incentive was to encourage first buyers to enter the market by helping applicants with their deposit through the refund of applicants’ income tax and DIRT other the past 4 years. It applies to first time buyers who either purchase or build new residential properties, and allows them to receive 5% of the purchase price of their new home, with an upward limit of €20,000. It is hoped that the incentive would help more people climb the property ladder, …

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Can car owners make money off of their car by not even driving it?

A new emerging Wicklow-based company might make that possible. Fleet, frequently referred to the Airbnb for cars, just secured AXA car insurance company to offer drivers coverage for only £7-£10 a day. The insurance deal is separate and does not affect the car owner’s own coverage.With this new deal, the business is going to hit the ground running. The brains of it all, Maurice Sheehy, is offering car owners a chance to make a profit off their car while they are not using it. This gives opportunity to car owners who don’t use their cars on their daily commute to make money by renting them out. If used two days a week, one can make £3,500 a year, according to Sheehy.

This new business may change the game for the car rental services, hopefully comparable to Airbnb in accommodations and Uber in taxis. With the reviewing process similar to Airbnb, the online reviews can be used by renters and users to ensure a good experience.

The new company was created because how frustrated they were with the large amounts of …

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Today FM, Irish Mortgage Brokers feature on ‘The Last Word’ with Matt Cooper

We were pleased to be part of a discussion with Matt Cooper (Today FM) and Kevin Doyle (political editor at The Independent) on the topic of housing on The Last Word.

The analysis we provided was to make the point that help to buy cannot possibly be behind house price increases across the nation. We also made the point that prices would have risen even without it and that you need to look at the secular trend not just the short term ones.

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First experience with ‘Help to Buy’

We are currently undergoing our first experience with a client who wants to use ‘Help to Buy’ and the same issue has arisen at two different banks so we are comfortable that it is probably a teething issue that is live and current.

The problem is that the banks are telling us they need proof the person will qualify for the HTB scheme, but to qualify you have to have a signed contract, no borrower is going to sign a contract unless the bank will advance the loan factoring in the HTB because otherwise they may not be able to complete the loan.

The lenders had forewarned us that there would be problems, but this one seems very basic. They could just make the offer contingent on the person qualifying for the scheme. Otherwise it will mean that people are stuck waiting for the contractors name to show up on what is so far a very short list, and they are also putting the kart before the horse in terms of how it was meant to operate.

For now all …

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