high population density is not a bad thing if its stable

and the quality of people is "diverse" ... and by diverse Im not talking about race... as thats irrelevant

or gender

high population density breeds violence, crime, poverty, and authoritarianism. it also bleeds out to the countryside inflating prices and destroying habitat and culture

inflating prices is fine as long as wages go with it.. it means each generations property gets easier to pay off

it won't inflate wages with it

and hasn't

it has tbf 😛

it hasn't

wages have massively outpaced inflation over the past few years... and thats with net immigration in the hundreds of thousands

plots have got smaller and more expensive - a property my parents generation afforded on 1 modest wage would take 2 wages well above median wage to afford now

it's not even remotely close

thats more to do with interest rates than population or anything like that...

nope

it's both

they would still have to pay thousands a month for the same size home today on a much smaller loan

demand >> supply

which is why its great that inflation kicked in.. rates went down.. and now its easier to pay off the relatively small loan

if the interest rates were much higher then prices would be lower, but they would be equivalently unaffordable to the way they are now

Also, interest rates are not going to go up now

or anytime in the short or medium term future

they will crawl up

but it depends a bit on the next Carney

Nah, the entire system has been debased, they won't go up

we might get a hawkish BoE leader who puts them up a point a year

theyre supposed to go up a quarter point before this december

they do that, they'll crush the housing market and make people homeless, so nah

not necessarily

They can't do anything except raise it extremely slowly without crippling people

for example....

And even small increments in interest rates will suck so much spending power out of the system it'll stall growth

when I got my 5yr fixed - the base rate was at 0.5% and my rate was 1.79% ... that same mortgage is now at 1.59% and the base rate is 0.75%

How much of that is because government bonds are going negative in large chunks of the western world?

I.E. it's not a sign of a healthy economy

banks are still competing for customers too.. so up-ing the base rate wont necessarily crush people

Putting it up 1% will

Putting it up 5% definitely will

I mean if they put it up another quarter point and at the end of my term the mortgages are still at 1.79% then it makes no difference to me

and theyre not going to put it back to 5% for a long while... it will be a crawl back... unless there is a massive boom

There'll be shit tons of people not on a fixed rate for whom a 1% hike would cost them a fortune

Either way, it doesn't resolve the need to prevent population levels rising in England