puser

Yes I agree it is overexaggerated; however I hope sentiments behind this were clear; not to take exact numbers

RAJESHP

You yourself can gurantee this! Do not listen to others, just keep your eyes and ear open. Look around for average salary of people. Their affordability.

Remember its not just IT/Black money people who need to buy, all the school teachers, postman, LIC etc all need house. Look for their salary too.

For prices to rise tomorrow, no body is going to put money in their pocket magically. Every one can pay what their pocket can. There is no magic in this world, only in Harry Potter movies.

Its a calculated risk you need to take. For me chances of prices to rise is 10% and to fall is 90% looking at average salary of people around me.

RAJESHP

There you go! You know the answer yourself. What do you think people will do when they cannot even do down payment? Call some magician to generate money in their pockets?

RAJESHP

Oops, to save some money, spend more No buyer buys unless he feels prices are going to rise tomorrow and can never fall from current levels.

Saurabh01

In 2004 the 6-8 lacs salary person can think to buy. Now it’s not possible.

kaatesha

As murtaza posted, one of the main reasons people suck into it is because of the family pressure. They think that if you buy a house you have achieved everything. Let me quote my own example. My brother in law bought a flat recently. (Its in the middle of nowhere. Way way far from the city. And they leveraged 85% from the bank. Even for the down payment they bought money from others). My FIL, asks me, they bought, when are you buying?. I tell them, i will buy when my net worth is at least 3 or 4 times the property price and moreover I should be convinced from all aspects with no compromise on location etc. Obviously they don't like me. But I don't care. Today i live in a rented 2400 sqst independent house in a very posh location. The rent i am paying is peanuts compared to the claimed value of the house. The owner is very nice person. I see no reason why i should buy now.

MANOJa

I agree. One should only buy, when he/she is comfortable buying & one should not have a herd mentality on this issue. After all , this is one of the most important decisions in yr. life.

I do not agree to the theory of upcoming bubble burst or prices of RE going down(it will certainly happen in some pockets) etc. etc. Has anybody seen prices of any commodity going down, in the last few years.( except the value of yr. money)

amjamirs2

Thats true Man.
I was also asked this question by several people.
And when during the bridesearch timeperiod, my parents thought that it was my weakpoint that I do not own a flat.

However I got married without owning a flat.

I purchased a flat later though....

aditi sharma

Good decision. A very close kin of mine had same exp when searching for a bride. His parental flat was 20yr old, not so well maintained. The parents of some good brides rejected. After few months he got someone. Her parents were understanding the fact that a man is worth more than a house. Now he is happy that he got in-laws who have better thought process and a bride who naturally inherited the wisdom of her parents.

realacres

Murtaza,
I am copy pasting what I had already written in RE bulls thread:-

1.) Buy today, houses always increase in value in the long run.

WRONG. House prices cannot increase more than incomes in the long run. This is obvious if you think about it. If house prices go up more than people can afford to pay, buying stops, like it has stopped now.
Even Warren Buffett have pointed out that houses don't increase in intrinsic value. Unless there's a bubble or a crash, house prices simply reflect current salaries and interest rates. If a house is 100 years old, it's value in sheltering you is exactly the same as it was 100 years ago. Then came the maintenance as the house didn't renovate itself. It also has taxes, and insurance - costs that always increase and never go away. The price of the house went up about as much as salaries went up.
To put this is simple perspective, vegetable were costing Rs.5-6/kg when 5 digit salary was a rarity.
Today, the prices have gone up by about 4 times but so have the salaries. So, sounds very much like the reasoning people use now when they talk about how much their father's house appreciated "in the long run" without considering that salaries rose a proportional amount.

As far as peer pressure is concerned, atleast for me, it is me who needs to take care of the life...if tomorrow I take wrong financial decision, these peers are not going to come & help me. So, buy based on your strength & wisdom, don't fall to what people say. Infact, I use multiple cell-fones, one of which is Nok_ia 1110, which I bought at INR 1499/- 2 years ago. Some people laugh when I speak on this fone, but I don't care about that, it's upto you to decide whether you want to spend 30k on 2 black-berries/SE Xperia or you can have one premium fone & other base model one.

Which bus man?? Volvo from outside & PMPML from inside or PMPML from outside & Volvo/Merc from inside?? Decide.

Man, if this is your capacity, be least bothered about the prices if you find VFM & like the property. Issue kicks in because of the 2 reasons of over-leveraging & peer pressure as you correctly mentioned above.

Remember than son,father & a donkey story?? Same is the case here.

* PS:- If some/all members don't know & are interested in this story, please inform, I will post the story here.

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