BBC News: New yuppies shun champagne lifestyle

The term yuppie conjures up images of the brash 1980s, when bright young things lived a loadsamoney lifestyle of flash cars, lavish lunches and power dressing. It was an era of playing hard and working hard. These days, young professionals are different. New research suggests they are more cautious about money than yesterday’s yuppies, who are struggling to maintain their once high-flying lifestyles.

Research from Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, a financial services company, suggests that pensions, getting on the property ladder and paying off debts are bigger priorities for today’s young professionals than living a champagne lifestyle. Four in 10 young urban professionals in 2007 cite paying off debts as a financial concern, compared with a third in the 1980s, according to the research based on a survey of 2,409 adults.

Almost a third say that saving for retirement is one of their top three biggest financial worries, compared with just 12% of original yuppies. With conspicuous consumption falling out of favour, today’s young yuppies spend their hard-earned cash on organic food and green fashion. But young go getters do enjoy the original yuppie love of gadgets, with 24% spending their money on technological wizardry compared with 18% in the late 1980s.

BBC News has an amusing article regarding the mortgage crisis. Below are quotes from some of their readers. For added amusement, we post responses from resident mortgage expert, Lolrus.

Reta Sanden from Turlock, California:

I am a realtor in the Central Valley of California, one of the hardest hit areas in the recent housing crunch. I too own a home, and my husband and I are struggling not just because I am not making any commissions lately, but because everything is going up - food, gas, taxes, you name it. We refinanced our home in November 2005 to do some much needed improvements. Now our adjustable rate mortgage is due to adjust in November. We are not sure what it will adjust to which is very worrying as my income has been greatly affected recently.
Banks used to be happy to talk to us and lend us money. Now we really need help and they don’t want to know us. We want to keep our home, and make the payments but if banks are going to turn their backs on us, then they deserve the losses they incur. Unless people are relieved of their prior credit damages, and are given a reasonable chance to pay back their debts, then they are in serious trouble.

Lolrus says:

Scuse, please? Why? Why come you buy ARM? Why not purchase bucket at affordable fixed rates? Scuse, as a realtor you should knows better. Me wish could lives in California but too expensive. Good fish there.

Cindy from Kansas City, Missouri:

We have an adjustable rate mortgage from one of the sub-prime lenders. We had a terrible financial year last year and fell behind in paying off our credit cards. As a result our credit is even worse this year and now as our mortgage goes up, we can’t refinance due to horrible credit. If we could get a loan to consolidate all our payments into a new mortgage, we would be so much better off, but that isn’t possible now and this whole situation has become a catch-22. Our ARM has gone up twice this year and I am afraid if it keeps up at this rate, I might not be able to stay on top of things. It would be great if these lenders could appreciate that although a lot of us don’t have good credit, we could still make the payments if they would just give us a chance - before we lose our home.

Lolrus says:

Scuse, please? Why? Why come you amass credit card debt and mortage debt? Why buy bucket at subprime when you no has money? No fish to use as collateral? Credit bad because you buy too much fish. Better to live in smaller bucket, me thinks. You buy bucket, you lie in it.

Angela Kinari from Eugene, Oregon:

I own a small mortgage brokerage company. This was one of the worst summers I have seen in my five years in the business. I have found that although many people want to refinance, many of them are unable to do so because of new guidelines that lenders have imposed. If truth be told, (subprime loans) are difficult to process and in my experience, the clients tended to be difficult to work with - either in proving their income or having high debt. I am worried as I am the breadwinner in the family.

Lolrus says:

Scuse, please? Why? Why come you bring home bread when fish much better? Fish has better nutrients for you. Better to eat fish than bread. Unless you make fish sandwich. Me thinks you better off in another profession also. Why come you facilitate bad loans for unaffordable buckets? Probably not good idea for yous. Must now pay price in appreciated fish.

Jenna from Houston, Texas:

I am a loan officer working in sub-prime lending. At the present time, I am looking for a job in other industries as we are facing a 20% reduction in our company. I have learned that lending to people with spotty credit and the promotion of ARMs was not the best of ideas. My advice to anyone buying a home is - make sure your credit is excellent, put at least 10%-20% down as a deposit, and never ever get an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), unless you plan on selling before it adjusts.

Lolrus says:

Scuse, please? How can sell a bucket in a saturated bucket market? Too many buckets already to try to sell before ARM adjustment. Me thinks not work. Why you thinks it work? Maybe because you bring home fish from bad subprime business. Now you thinks not good idea. Perhaps better to knows not good idea last year. Wake ups one day with fish eaten, and bucket stolen.

Marc Cardullo from Saco, Maine:

As a mortgage loan officer, the bad news pours in from across the industry on a daily basis. I blame the government for not regulating our business more, like they do with banks. They should have seen this coming. I blame homeowners for basically using the equity on their homes as an ATM machine. I blame the banks and lenders for approving people for homes who had no business buying one in the first place. I also blame the banks and lenders for coming up with teaser rates and interest-only products that are confusing to your average American consumer. Overall, things are not good here and my guess is it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Lolrus says:

Scuse, please? Why blames all but yourself? Yous loan officer. Yous like selling fish to fish addicts. Yous facilitate fish addiction. And now you blames government. “Sorry, yous has bad credit and massive debt on Visa cards, and bad investments get pooled into worthless funds. But mes help you anyway because mes loan officer and likes money so can buy fish at market later. And get a nice shiny gold bucket to sleep in.” I wishes! Heart bleeds for loan officer. You probably one who help steals my bucket. Oh how me wishes for bucket back. Or at least a nice piece of fish!

From Trump Tower to construction firms, Crain’s showcases the swankest places in Chicago to work. On-site bathrooms, floor-to-ceiling windows and creature comforts are de rigeur at these eight companies.

Link: Chicago Business

U.S. home to set world price record at $155 mln

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Forbes.com said timber and real estate baron Tim Blixseth has just upped the ante in the price of the world’s most expensive home, planning to build and sell a home for $155 million. The 53,000-square-foot stone and wood mansion will be built at the Yellowstone Club, a members-only, residential ski and golf resort near Bozeman, Montana developed by Blixseth. The 10-bedroom mansion will sit on 160 acres and will come with a private gondola-like chairlift that will carry residents to the Yellowstone Club’s private ski slopes, an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, and a home movie theater, and it is fully furnished.

That tops the $139 million asking price for Updown Court in Windlesham, England, which was listed No. 1 in the Forbes.com list of the world’s most expensive homes in 2006. It also exceeds the $125 million that U.S. media mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump is asking for the renovated estate he owns in Palm Beach, Florida.

Think housing is expensive? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet…..
According to ApartmentTherapy:

A 77-square-foot Knightsbridge, London apartment is currently for sale for - get this - 335K. That’s $4,340 per square foot! The property’s realtor, Andrew Scott, is seen posing, touching both outer walls of the basement flat by simply spreading his arms.

From Yahoo:

The mortgage buys a spot within walking distance of tony stores like Harrods and London’s iconic Hyde Park. Originally conceived as a maid’s room, the apartment at 18 Cadogan Place hasn’t been used for years and is littered with trash bags and crumbling paint. A coffin-sized shower is en suite, and storage is provided by a shallow closet and 10-inch-deep shelves cut into the wall. Two hot plates and a small sink make up the kitchen. Two dirty windows allow light to filter into the basement room, and the fire escape could conceivably double as a shared patio. With no electricity or heating, Scott said it would cost an additional $59,000 to make the room habitable.

The sale of this dark, mildewy room illustrates the astronomical rise in property values across London, which in the past year has seen average residential property prices increase 22.4 percent, to about $703,000, according to figures released Monday by Rightmove, which tracks the British property market.

Prices in London’s most desirable neighborhoods have grown even faster, with average house prices in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea — where Cadogan Place is located — rising 61.8 percent over the past year to a jaw-dropping $2.2 million.

Ultra high-end property prices in London are the most expensive in the world, with some recent sales hitting $5,900 per square foot — making the Cadogan Place studio a bargain by comparison, according to research published last year by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.

Similar properties in New York can go for about $5,300 per square foot, while those in Hong Kong sell at around $3,950 per square foot.