tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post7259761505701842143..comments2024-03-29T14:17:56.918+00:00Comments on Boffy's Blog: The Political Economy of FloodingBoffyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-76424774237575621652012-11-29T10:24:00.366+00:002012-11-29T10:24:00.366+00:00If the only car I could afford to buy was one that...If the only car I could afford to buy was one that was a death trap, and kept costing me money I would decide not to buy a car, but to continue walking, cycling, using Public Transport, and renting a car when that was needed.<br /><br />People do not have to buy houses they cannot afford. They can continue to rent, for example. They can live with parents, and so on. The houses built on flood plains were not all built in one go, and sold in one go. Its been a process over a long time.<br /><br />The reason people cannot afford a lot of housing is not because the cost of building houses has risen. It is because people have been prepared to borrow large amounts of money (they often can't afford to pay back at normal interest rates), to pay over inflated prices for houses they couldn't afford. That meant land prices were then forced up.<br /><br />If people refused to pay over inflated prices for houses, they would fall - which will happen before too long anyway - then land prices would also fall, which will cut the cost of building new houses.<br /><br />When I got married I was 20 and my wife was 18. neither of us had well paid jobs. At the time I was getting £25 a week, which was not great even for the 1970's. We would like to have bought a house to, but couldn't afford. So we lived in a flat for 3 years, had no car, no TV, bought clothes from jumble sales, lived on baked beans, and walked everywhere.<br /><br />Three years later, we'd saved over £5,000 (equal to about £80,000 today), and bought our first house for cash. Its about making choices. I never thought anyone should bail me out for putting up with living in a cold damp flat for 3 years!Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-12781355117877788702012-11-28T16:10:38.303+00:002012-11-28T16:10:38.303+00:00Didn't most people who bought houses on flood ...Didn't most people who bought houses on flood plains only do so because they were the only houses they could afford?George Cartyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170378024031141482noreply@blogger.com