Messages

 

From the player ratings, which are also given to-day, it seems that you'd be better off without a goalkeeper and any defenders altogether(unless they actually score), and the winning managers all earned the same number of points last week (ie 10) as Stephen O'Neill

Tony i think if you remember the early Irish news versions of this, keepers and defenders were the only people that could lose points.
These new rules suit forwards, therefore keeping cleans sheets and scores under a total are going to be hard.
I would have picked 6 half backs with the Irish news version.  Thats why this version is an improvement and a challenge.
You will probably be better picking a reserve keeper.

P.S do you remember the year they got the Lawn twins mixed up.  They had the forward lawn down as a back.  Twas a great mistake

Anyone else not mind seeing Benayoun tried in that role in 'the hole'. It'd be a slightly different role than Gerrard fills as he drives forward into that space, but I think Benayoun would enjoy dropping off a front man and being a prompter around the edge of the box.

Yep.  Think it would suit him perfectly.  I do not thinkwe have any other option for Portsmouth.
Kuyt would not be the man to play in behind.  would suit Benayoun perfectly

[NOT]

Fermgael ...the article is wrong . The Halifax price survey is NOT based on asking prices but on mortgage offers and therefore agreed deals supported by independent valuations.
There may still be issues in Ireland but the overall UK market wont fall much further IMO.

It is a reliable survey and definite indication that in general the market is bumping along the bottom .


There will still be regional variations and NI in particular still has away to go.

BCarrier i could argue with you that this rise is to do with seasonal variations.


As for your point about agreed mortgages, that is true.
But i agreed a mortgage and a price for a property before Christmas.  Though we were getting a good deal but got serious cold feet.
Pulled out and the sale did not go through.  My details will be included here even though then purchase did not go through.

As for your point about UK property being at the bottom, maybe.
But I do not think so.  Job losses are increasing, more and more people are defaulting on their mortgages.
More and more are comming to the end of there 100% interest only mortgage, to find out they owe the banks 10's of thousands plus the reduced value of their property.
This means that those FTB's who did buy and will be looking to move on to there second home will not be able to.
How many of these people might just decide to return the keys??  Sure renting would be a cheaper option for them

You have said that you do not believe that the average house price will go back to 2.5 x salary.  But over the last 300 years that is what it has been historically, on average.
Banks will now not lend any more that 3 x salary to the FTB, plus they must have a minimum 15% deposit(20% if they want a competitive rate).
So for an average house of £163,966, that means the average salary must be £46500 plus have a deposit of £24,500.
That is unrealistic in the current economic climate.  The current generation no very little about saving and with low interest rates, they will be getting no return on it.
With these prices and people unable to move house because of negative equity, who is going to buy houses?


If you look at auctions of property in the UK, prices are down 52% from the peak

This looks like a worldwide depression to me.  Just my opinion.
Its is only at the beginning stage.  We had a boom for 10 years.
Why or why does everybody think its going to be over in 18 months.
I really hope that i am wrong about this but something tells me things are going to get a lot worse before they get better

My mortgage deal is on tracker and it expires in April. I will have negative equity on my house so i cant change to a different bank. Should i look for a fixed deal now or just sit on their standard variable for a few months. The trackers are about base +2.5% so all it would need would be one interest hike and i would be paying above fixed rates. Current tracker is base plus 0.7% - if only i could keep that!!

I would say you are going to have to sit at their variable rate in the short term.
They will not give you a fixed deal because most are only lending out to people who have a 15-20% deposit.
Try and overpay the mortgage if they let you.
what sort of negative equity are you taking about?

decent enough fall in belfast

[The average house price reached £163,966 according to the data, which is based on home asking prices.]

This has to be shite !


House prices 'up 1.9% in January' 
 


House price surveys explained
The price of UK homes rose by 1.9% in January, ending a run of 11 monthly falls, according to the Halifax.

Despite January's rise, the annual change in house prices showed a fall of 17.2%, the Halifax said.

The average house price reached £163,966 according to the data, which is based on home asking prices.

Last week, a survey by Nationwide suggested prices fell by 1.3% in January, saying job worries were set to put people off buying new homes.
When simply comparing the average price in January with the average price a year ago, the Halifax survey suggests that prices are down by 16.8% from £197,243 in January 2008.

But the lender prefers to compare the average price for the past three months with the average price for the same period a year ago, which produces its current estimate of a 17.2% annual fall.

'Difficult year'

"There are some very early signs that market activity may be stabilising, albeit at quite a low level," said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.


 
"Nonetheless, continuing pressures on incomes, rising unemployment and the negative impact of the dislocation of the financial markets on the availability of mortgage finance are expected to mean that 2009 will be a difficult year for the housing market."

Estate agents have been reporting more would-be homebuyers registering with them, but these have not yet been converted to sales.

And observers say that the housing market is unlikely to improve until the economy stops shrinking, with continued restrictions on credit reducing the amount of people taking out mortgages.

The UK economy is now deemed to be in recession having recorded two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

The Bank of England has been cutting the base rate sharply in recent months in an effort to stimulate the economy.

It is expected to trim the rate further later on Thursday, with most analysts expecting a cut from 1.5% to 1%

The devil is in the detail.
Asking prices may have went up  but what about prices on completition.
what about the actual price that houses are being sold at??

If you look at the rest of the article it is extremely cautious. 

How come you look at estate agents websites and the houses on there still have big prices in there ?

And theres the problem, Estate agents.
I have been in to see a few in the last couple of months. 
Usual responses have been now is the best time to buy, its not going to get any lower than this.
IMO at most, you should be paying what a house is rated at.

One estate agent has been honest with me.  They are shifting very few houses and those they do shift are well under the asking price in the window.
But as he said, the boss does not want these prices getting into the public domain. They are being kept on the qt.
Also alot of sellers are simply refusing to adjust the prices from what they were worth 18 months ago.
They simply refuse to believe that property can fall in value.
A good estate agent will try and convince a seller to lower there prices to market levels.

The problem is there are not that many good estate agents left any more.
Previously they just sat back, watched house rising and played buyers off against each other.
Now buyers are more cautious and estate agents have to work to make a few pound.
This is why alot of them are finding things so difficult.

The problem with N.I house prices especially is that they rose the most of anywhere in the UK in the boom.
The also means they will be the biggest losers in the depression we are in

If i had a house and had paid 30%+ of its value paid off, i would be looking to get a good long term fixed rate(10 - 15 years) from the banks(say 5%-8%).
These rates may be impossible to get but you never know.
You will pay more in the short term, but you well be laughing in the long term.

Although interest rates are historically low at the moment and will remain so in the short term. IMHO interest rates will be at least 10% in the long term.
In the UK they are probably going to print more money to pay to bail out the banks, they are doing this in the states at the moment to pay for there war on terror.
This will lead to bigger interest rates and maybe even a bit of hyperinflation.
If there is even a touch of hyperinflation, and you have a good fixed rate you could basically pay of you debt inside 5 years.

Some will say that could never happen but if you check your economic textbooks it happened in the last 50 years in the UK anyhow

Liverpools last league game is at home to Spurs.
Imagine the scene if Liverpool are still in the hunt for the league and Spurs are still in the relegation zone.
Last minute, Keane is one on one with Reina, if he scores Spurs stay up, if he misses he gets a League winners medal..................

Unlikely at the moment but you never know

any chance of a wee day of tommorrow O'Neill??

would agree Bogball.
Houses have been massively overvalued and still are.
Being looking at buying but there just is no value. Esate agents keep telling me that this is cheap and we have hit the bottom.
No where close IMHO
Scary what could happen with futher job losses and the fact that alot of people are going to have a huge amount of negative equity around their necks when they go to renegotiate their deals.
i know of alot of people who have a 100% mortgage with at least £50000 of negative equity.
Glad i went and seen a bit of the world instead of buying a house.  Best decision i ever made(mainly due to the ole fella telling me i was nuts to buy at that price, when ever one else was telling me i was getting a bargain)

[KICK]

agree and disagree FermPundit.
Monaghan did not have a full team on today.
Woods and D Freeman came of the bench along with a few other players who would have started last year.
They played very well today and looked to KICK a ball 30 yards.  There players are comfortable kick passing the ball and running with it.
We are not confident with our kick passing and always look for the short fist pass. 
We were easy to defend against today because Monaghan just dropped men back, invited us to shoot from 30 yards +
and when the attack broke down they hit us at pace and then gave a good ball into the full forward line or hit good cross field passes.
They had variation in there tactics

From the sounds of it, McGrath and Owens are going to be out for a while.  Clucker has other commitments with the soccer from what i heard today
and Murphy is in Oz for a another while yet.  That is the best we have.  Maybe Ciaran Reilly to throw in but he will not solve the midfield sector.
Shane O'Brien has potential but he is a bit light for midfield yet.  How many time did Clerkin out muscle him when they were competing for a kickout.
Where was Carson today??  We needed his physical presence in midfield.  He played most of the Mckenna cup but did  not feature today.  Is he off the panel?

I hate to go on about it but Finlay destroyed McDermott today.  He should have been switched off him but he was not.  We then moved him into midfield
and guess what Monaghan did??  Moved Finlay to midfield where he scored the point that secured the game after Fermanagh had got within touching distance.
Surly Lyons would be a better man at CHB and drop McDermott back to Full back where he did a good job last year. 

How did McDermott stay on today??
He gave Finlay the freedom of Brewster park today. 

We had no midfield today at all.  Both Sherry and O'Brien were disappointing today in the primary job of winning or breaking ball.
SOB scored 2 nice points but he was given a lesson today at midfield.
Goan and Lyons played well at the back and Jones recovered well after a doggy first 15.
Upfront Ferris showed abit and Ryder was not bad in the first half.  Tired in the second.
Eamonn was well marshalled and Lyttle was disappointing and his man scored 1-2.

we will do well to stay up.  These new rules do not suit us and McGrath, Owens, Murphy and McCluskey are a huge loss.

31st Jan
19:30  Dublin v Tyrone    (Dublin +1.5) TYRONE (BONUS)

1st Feb 2009
13:00  London v Leitrim     (London +14.5) London
14:30  Mayo v Derry     (Derry +1.5) Mayo
14:30  Westmeath v Galway     (Westmeath + 2.5)   Galway
14:30  Kerry v Donegal    (Donegal +3.5) Kerry
14:30  Wexford v Armagh     (Wexford + 1.5) Wexford
14:30  Fermanagh v Monaghan     (fermanagh +0.5)   Fermanagh
14:30  Cork v Meath     (Meath +2.5)   Cork
14:30  Laois v Kildare     (Kildare +2.5) Laois
14:30  Roscommon v Offaly     (Offaly +1.5)  Roscommon
14:30  Longford v Cavan     (Longford +1.5) Cavan (Bonus)
14:30  Louth v Limerick     (Limerick +3.5)   Limerick
14:30  Tipperary v Down    (Tipperary +5.5) Tipperary
14:30  Sligo v Kilkenny     (Kilkenny +20.5) Sligo
14:30  Carlow v Clare     (Clare +0.5)   Carlow
14:30  Antrim v Wicklow     (Wicklow +1.5) Antrim

Well i beat Tony anyhow but then again that was not hard.

Tony is the one entry per person rule ruining your chances of winning??