Yeah, never had it so good, except for the part about reduced wages and the following redundancy causing me to be about £30k out of pocket. Not to mention the stress.

Dick!

Renters have not had it so easy, and that includes the majority of young people. Rents have not fallen and even if you work your cost of living has climbed faster than your wages. Also for those with tracker mortgages they might be doing well now, but their pain will come when interest rates rise in 2012.

Mostly, it'll come when the period of 'tracking' runs out and they find themselves a) back on base rate and b) unable to get a remortgage at anything like the deal they had before. If I was them I'd start putting the savings they're making away, because they're going to need them.

Jon

I totally agree. Though I think that the numbers of those with negative equity is significant, though the US has nearly 40% of mortgage holders in negative equity, and in places like Las Vegas it is over 60%. The US is expected to fall another 10% and I still see no reason why they cannot fall another 30% here. Far too many people have treated the low interest rates as a windfall and spent them. That is why I think next year will be tougher for most people.