vlad, valid point I have been making time and again over the...

vlad, valid point I have been making time and again over the years on hc and property discussions...............

and steve you should read an article todays smh or the age online.......gives a pretty good set of reasons about the current market.........and one point is, if one had purchased and held property since around 2000m we are sitting on nice capital gains and increased market valuations......and the banks will lend to us because we have a huge amount of equity,etc etc etc

.... and we can afford to buy again, and the rent increases look very attractive, versus the stockmarket is going to be hellish to say the least for 2008............
I am not buying at the top of the market...........but I might be selling and then buying in the same market........,
the reason I will be buying is for a lifestyle, nothing else......., changed my mind about the tree top properties lifestyle, decided it does not have enough going for it to suit my lifestyle...............
am waiting for the next interest rate rise due next week to form an opinion............but the area I am interested in is toorak........we do not have a load of mortgage stressed people here who are likely to sell up cheaply.........
the high flyers on big incomes, with quite a few stocks will feel some stress from the stockmarket.........but they are in surrounding suburbs.......which I am not interested in anyway...........and their incomes will ensure they are not mortgage stressed..........
most mortgage stressed suburbs are in the western areas, and outer suburbs..........ie sydney most affected.........
again, I am not interested in investing or living in those areas...........
the props I do hold are in inner city areas, where the prices are rising.
I really don't see your 40-50% drop in prices happening, not in the overall market, you might get 10-20% in some very unattractive areas..................
molonski........at least you are seeing gains, 10% is nothing to be sneezed at....a good exercise is to calculate how much 10% means to you over a 10 year period, multiplied by 3 houses........guess the houses are worth about 300,000 each is 30,000 pa times 3 = 90.000 pa by 10 years = 900,000.....thats not a bad superfund, or retirement fund to be in, is it ???
cheers