Mortgage rates / interest etc

[niall Y]

Re the definition of words, I'm rather fond of the quote by Lewis Carroll -
" When I use a word................ it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less"

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Lewis Carroll quote - arrogance personified - words are the way we communicate - far more important to use words whose meaning can be understood by the recipient.

If cutting a dovetail and ask my gofer to go an get the "oil can" he is unlikely to return with the much needed chisel, no matter how convinced I am that "oil can" is an appropriate descriptor for a sharp pointy thing.

 

[Spectric]

This immigration crisis could be solved if we had a working, functioning government that had the will to do so but instead they are spineless. One way to solve a problem is to look at how others have solved a similar problem and Australia is where you find the answers. They had a migrant crisis but no where near on our scale and was solved by Scott Morrison by declaring it as a threat to national security and stating that no one entering Australia illegally by boat would be given residency, it was zero so gave out a clear message to any thinking of trying.

Ok we would need a trophy to resemble a dinghy but it is a clear statement that the Australian immigration minister had balls and could do his job unlike the useless excuses we have for home office and immigration.

 

[D_W]

This immigration crisis could be solved if we had a working, functioning government that had the will to do so but instead they are spineless. One way to solve a problem is to look at how others have solved a similar problem and Australia is where you find the answers.

Inevitably, an optimal solution will involve some things you advocate and when you look further, some things others have advocated that you thought you didn't agree with.

The clash with political processes is pretty obvious. Can you imagine someone saying "I've adopted 60% my solution and 40% my opponents more or less".

What actually happens is that both sides try to rebrand a part of any solution that matches a prior solution by an opponent and then claim that they're not the same thing.

We have several medicare options in the US that are a point of this credit taking - the enormously expensive medicare part D that was rushed into place by republicans to beat democrats on it. And MAPD that the democrats have always hated because the republicans put it in place, so even though it's widely favored (not universally, but by a lot of retirees), it is the target of cuts as "profitable for greedy insurers" while the supplemental plans (also insured) somehow aren't, and are much more confusing for retirees to navigate. If democrats had created the plan type, they'd love it and republicans would call it "Wasteful spending".

politics is incompatible with problem solving, monitoring, improving, eliminating solutions to solved problems, etc. More or less normal productive things -in politics, no bueno.

 

[Jacob]

Bitter? Or compassionate?

.....

Just "normal".
I've met thousands of first, second, third generation immigrants over the years and I can't recall one I wouldn't consider to have been just another normal human being going about their business in a normal way.
I don't know why so many people find them frightening, perhaps they just don't get out enough.
I do think their fear is used by politicians to create divisions and irrational behaviour, such as voting for brexit.

 

[baldkev]

Luckily since the 3rd nov, interest rates on mortgages are dropping a bit, so nows a good time to fix
In other news its been wet n windy here

 

[johna.clements]

Luckily since the 3rd nov, interest rates on mortgages are dropping a bit, so nows a good time to fix
In other news its been wet n windy here

It certainly has been. Supposed to be showers for a bit. I m going out in the garden hopefully the showers will wiz past north or south of me.

 

[John Brown]

I wouldn't want to swap places.

Sorry but the tide is very much in the far left/ immigrants favour!

 

[D_W]

Luckily since the 3rd nov, interest rates on mortgages are dropping a bit, so nows a good time to fix
In other news its been wet n windy here

they are about 7.4 here.

Somewhere around 16 years ago when I moved here, I got a mortgage with a 6% rate. Like full FHA type here thinking houses would keep going up as they had been doing - right before 2008, and being less stingy then than I am now, I thought we'd be moving on.

I think I refinanced here one time, but that wasn't that productive if you were intending to prepay because you just add the closing costs to the balance of the loan. When I refinanced, it was at something like 4.25 and I thought "we'll never see 6% again!!

I haven't followed them but would guess they got down into the high 2s or low 3s.

I got itchy some time ago and paid off the balance (the benefit of living in the US at the time when at least the smaller houses were cheap, they are double now, same house, 16 years older) and instantly was inundated with mail and email literature "take a loan out and make your home the home of your dreams! Your home is your biggest investment!".

Well, not remotely close to even numerically true, it's an expense unless you get really lucky timing. The power of branding in the states with the realtors makes people think that structures are investments - stupidity. Some of our original neighbors have moved twice, to bigger houses each time with their new found equity (but a much bigger balance to pay). They think they're going forward - doubling or tripling property taxes and I guess never planning to actually own their houses. Each time you transfer real estate here, unless you can do the contract work yourself, you end up paying about 8% of the property value in realtor costs, legal costs, transfer taxes and closing costs.

 

[D_W]

I wouldn't want to swap places.

False dilemmas for sale today, folks! Get them cheap!

 

[Terry - Somerset]

the Australian immigration minister had balls and could do his job unlike the useless excuses we have for home office and immigration.

Whether one agrees with his actions or not, it is clarity and lack of ambiguity which gets things done.

The UK has politicians on both sides of the political divide for whom energetic fence sitting to create the illusion of action and ideas has become endemic for fear of upsetting one set of voters or another.

The current incumbents have proven they are incapable of effective action on immigration over several years - I have zero confidence that were the opposition to win power they would be any better.

 

[baldkev]

they are about 7.4 here.

Somewhere around 16 years ago when I moved here, I got a mortgage with a 6% rate. Like full FHA type here thinking houses would keep going up as they had been doing - right before 2008, and being less stingy then than I am now, I thought we'd be moving on.

I think I refinanced here one time, but that wasn't that productive if you were intending to prepay because you just add the closing costs to the balance of the loan. When I refinanced, it was at something like 4.25 and I thought "we'll never see 6% again!!

I haven't followed them but would guess they got down into the high 2s or low 3s.

I got itchy some time ago and paid off the balance (the benefit of living in the US at the time when at least the smaller houses were cheap, they are double now, same house, 16 years older) and instantly was inundated with mail and email literature "take a loan out and make your home the home of your dreams! Your home is your biggest investment!".

Well, not remotely close to even numerically true, it's an expense unless you get really lucky timing. The power of branding in the states with the realtors makes people think that structures are investments - stupidity. Some of our original neighbors have moved twice, to bigger houses each time with their new found equity (but a much bigger balance to pay). They think they're going forward - doubling or tripling property taxes and I guess never planning to actually own their houses. Each time you transfer real estate here, unless you can do the contract work yourself, you end up paying about 8% of the property value in realtor costs, legal costs, transfer taxes and closing costs.

I dont know the total % cost of moving here, but it soon adds up.
Buying bigger houses and taking the pain on the extra costs generally works over here. Prices on the whole only really go up ( sure, you get a 'crash' where they drop a bit, then when they recover, they rocket back up. )
So the bigger the house / move valuable, generally the higher the gain. I.e pre pandemic we looked at moving and needed another 40 to 50k ish.... now the step is more like 80! A 500k house would now be worth over 600k...
It gets to a point where that drops off though, because after a million, theres less people who can buy them

 

[monster]

I failed O level English twice, I know I mangle the language at times but I hope people undertand what I am saying whether they agree or not.

Did you mean 'understand'

 

[John Brown]

Re the definition of words, I'm rather fond of the quote by Lewis Carroll -
" When I use a word................ it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less"

Surely that's a quote from a slightly deranged character in a work of fiction by LC.

 

[John Brown]

False dilemmas for sale today, folks! Get them cheap!

What is your problem? I was merely disputing the idea that the tide was in favour of immigrants, I don't believe that constitutes a false dichotomy. Let's have some more stories about your neighbor, or some guy you met once from England, who told you everything there is to know about the place.

 

[D_W]

What is your problem? I was merely disputing the idea that the tide was in favour of immigrants, I don't believe that constitutes a false dichotomy. Let's have some more stories about your neighbor, or some guy you met once from England, who told you everything there is to know about the place.

It's not a realistic thing - "put yourself in their shoes" with the bend toward "it could happen to you".

Would you rather be you with immigrants or you without immigrants. Those are your choices. Their choices are "would we rather stay where we are or try to move to the UK".

To try to get people into the "they're you in different circumstances" kind of knuckle smacking is just beating people over their heads with their own virtues.

 

[D_W]

What is your problem? I was merely disputing the idea that the tide was in favour of immigrants, I don't believe that constitutes a false dichotomy. Let's have some more stories about your neighbor, or some guy you met once from England, who told you everything there is to know about the place.

Nice try. The guy I met 400 times? His view of England is outdated - from when he left, except for the times that he's visited and expressed distaste with certain things, such as his dad's end of life care and the conditions in the care home where he was.

I do know a few people from England I've met once or twice, i could open it up further.

 

[John Brown]

It's not a realistic thing - "put yourself in their shoes" with the bend toward "it could happen to you".

Would you rather be you with immigrants or you without immigrants. Those are your choices. Their choices are "would we rather stay where we are or try to move to the UK".

To try to get people into the "they're you in different circumstances" kind of knuckle smacking is just beating people over their heads with their own virtues.

Then it's ridiculous to say that the tide is with them. Of course it isn't.

 

[niall Y]

Surely that's a quote from a slightly deranged character in a work of fiction by LC.

It is, indeed the words spoken by one of his characters, and aren't they all a bit strange? But it does contain a grain of truth - which is that words change their meaning, simply because people use them to mean specifically what they want them to mean, Is this not how language mutates? After all 'simplistic' did not use to mean 'over simplified,' Someone at some stage decided to use it for what they wanted, and the idea caught on.

 

[John Brown]

I

It is, indeed the words spoken by one of his characters, and aren't they all a bit strange? But it does contain a grain of truth - which is that words change their meaning, simply because people use them to mean specifically what they want them to mean, Is this not how language mutates? After all 'simplistic' did not use to mean 'over simplified,' Someone at some stage decided to use it for what they wanted, and the idea caught on.

I'm not disputing that. Word meaning is defined by common usage. Unless you're French.