Fools muse on the property market, recycling and public spending.
House prices have been pretty big news for a few years now, with there being a modern trend towards seeing residential property as an investment class rather than just somewhere to live. So it's nice to see one of our more learned Fools putting it into some sort of context. As the venerable KingMcKong put it...
"This is a historical perspective, as I'm very ancient and therefore have the ability to look backwards many, many years!"
The McKongs apparently head out to look at houses occasionally, so how do they see the relative prices of today?
"...Our purchase had been at 3 times my income (that's a single one not a husband and wife addition), and the Georgian detached house would have taken 4.5 times. In those days the lenders (for normal people not connected with the property industry) would not have entertained a loan of 4.5 times income. They considered that sort of ratio imprudent.
In present day terms the detached house that we missed, at £1m, would cost 25 times the notional £39,285 income above. That's the measure of change in property values that we've seen here."
The full story is well worth reading for the insight it brings into the way attitudes have changed, so do read on.
Profit from recycling
The regulars on the Living Below Your Means board know all about how to get stuff cheap and avoid waste, and it's perhaps not surprising that many of them frequent recycling centres. But it's not often that people uncover as good a find as RedSturgeon's latest...
"Yesterday I made my young son's day for the princely sum of £3. He has started playing golf and a friend kindly donated some junior sized clubs and a bag about six months ago. This has proved fine for getting him started but the bag is a old heavy one and doesn't have the nice pop up stand and rucksack type carrying harness that the modern ones do. So imagine my delight when I saw a brand new looking, junior golf bag with both these features, begging me to take it home from the local recycling centre."
You'll have to read on to discover what he found in the pockets.
Double dip recession?
Many analysts have been predicting the shape of the recession ever since it started. Some reckoned it would be a long, drawn-out "U-shaped" recession, but as we are officially back in growth, that's the one that can be discounted. So we're left with the possibility of it having been a "V-shaped" recession that is genuinely over, or a "W-shaped one", with a second slump, a "double dip", still to come.
Fools have been debating it, following on from offthepoint's poll. The result so far is close, so why not cast your vote and tell us what you think?
Blasted Computer!
Do you ever feel the need to throw your computer out of the window because it just won't work properly? The Help with this Blasted Computer! board could be just what you need.
The board's regulars include a lot of very clever techie folk who know all about motherboards, memory upgrades, fixing viruses, and all sorts of stuff -- and it's even rumoured that one or two of them can get Vista working.
And for those of us who prefer the kind of computers that just work without all that fuss, we also offer our Mac Users Group board.
And finally...
With an election looming, there are some great political quotes being bandied about, and lowersharpnose picked up on a very apposite one...
"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
Who do you reckon -- Gordon Brown, David Cameron? You'll have to read it to find out.
Last week's roundup: Buffett's Annual Address
