It's good news for FTBs if house prices reduce but it's not good news for those who bought with very large mortgages over the past few years. Also, as has been mentioned, those who have used the equity in their homes as spending money.

I too will not go without a holiday but I learnt from my dad that if you want something then you save for it. There are probably a lot of people who pay for holidays on a credit card and pay it off just before the next holiday, perhaps the credit crunch will affect those people, especially if they are facing much higher mortgage payments.

Anyway, seems we are all a sensible lot on here and nothing gets in the way of our hols!

SandC wrote:

Anyway, seems we are all a sensible lot on here and nothing gets in the way of our hols!

Thats true S&C most of us seem to be having to cut back from 3 hols to 2 or 2 to 1.
You can see why we are members of HT.

credit crunch could have a big impact on my life and holidays.
I work for a property development co building new houses, and my husband is a builder. If banks stop giving mortgages as reported I could be out of a job

Better make the most of this years holidays

But if house prices go down more people will be able to get a mortgage even with the new lending criteria. Just to try to put a positive on it. Plus they've reduced the interest rate again.

Hi Sandc

if house prices go down this wont help people as banks are not giving out as many mortgages as before and people with mortgages who paid over the odds for their houses would have a mortgage shortfall if they are trying to sell.

House prices going down would certainly put paid to me going on holidays as this would mean no profits and
No profit would mean no holiday for me as its my bonus that pays for my hols

Lynn M, I sympathise, my husband is a surveyor for a small developer, who are the first to be hit when the banks stop lending the money. Houses are sold but can't be finished without backing and we watch the situation day by day. Can't risk booking next year's holiday when we don't know how long he could be in work for.

PAM

Good point Shirley and Wizard. I've told my parents many times that I am thankful they taught me how to budget and not to buy anything you couldn't afford.

Petrol is definitely our main weekly spend. We need 2 cars as my hubby works shifts and I work around 24 miles away where it's not viable to get public transport to. I only have a 1.1 Hyundai Getz and it costs me £30 in petrol just to go to to and from work and it's increasing all the time.

We'll get away somewhere in October but this year it'll be a last minute deal as with me changing jobs there's not as much money coming in each month so it's taking me until then to save for it and as much as I love my holidays I won't put it on a credit card and put it on "the tick".

It's an absolute pain at the moment-------------BUT,

As the song goes===========Always look on the bright side of life

Another problem with me is that I work in a school and have to take my main hol in August, which means a bargain is out of the question. If I was a teacher I wouldn't mind so much as I'd probably be able to afford it, but unfortunately I'm only on a care assistant's salary

Oh I feel really sorry for those people who run up big credit card debits and then get a remortgage and then do it again and again, not. Piper wants paying now and they are all in over their heads. House prices, when they were going up everybody was happy but now the bubble is about to burst they want the government to save them. What did they expect house price would rise forever with no more crashes. I am sure these poor souls will have one last spend on their credit card to for this years holiday. The market can't be fixed by anybody and it has to run its course. The government is worried about falling house prices because the whole economy is based on credit and people funding their life style through credit cards to be able to remortgage to start again.

One way to look at it is that if holiday prices are up and less people can afford to go then there will be a lot of holidays unsold and therefore having to be sold on as bargains!!!
I think the euro is going to be the main thing that puts prices up for holidays as the hotels etc will now be asking for more £££££'s from the tour operators! The problem is knowing what our tour operators are like they will bump the prices by way more than they should just to squeeze that last bit of cash out of us!

I think the trouble is that if the credit crunch really starts biting the TO's will just reduced the number of holidays on sale, rather than sell them off at a loss. So there wont be that many bargains around. They will contract less hotel rooms and charter less flights.

hi.all.............unless you are either selling or buying a house then the credit .......crunch.???.
doesnt mean a thing to those people with a mortgage.......

John doe- unless I'm reading you wrong, how does it not affect you if you have a mortgage? What about lots of people like us who have come off a fixed rate and are paying more? We are lucky by todays standards to have a small mortgage but many haven't. Factor in with that council tax, household utility and fuel prices rising and surely there can't be anyone who actually has more left at the end of the month than say a year ago, not unless you have had a good wage increase. I work in the NHS and my increase was a pittance after paying hospital parking charges.

The credit crunch isn't just about those who live on credit, it's the economy in general and those of us who are worried about our financial stability despite not having huge debts, will be just as unlikely to book a holiday for next year as those who have already maxed out their cards etc.

I can't see how it only effects those who are buying and selling property, it effects everybody as the economy in general is put under pressure, also the general increases in council tax, gas, elec, water, petrol is part of the same thing.

If people see the equity in their properties go down by 40% they still feel the pressure even when staying put. I would imagine that might make them loath to book holidays. Leisure is normally the first Industry to suffer when an economy downturns.

Hi John doe

Sorry but you are wrong. The credit crunch wont just effect people buying or selling their homes.

Its already having an effect on the construction industry. If there are less mortgages going around people wont be able to buy the new houses being built. Think about worst case senario everyone in that industry out of a job. Can you imagine the effect that would have on the economy

I believe the newspapers are not helping the situation at the moment and scaremongering people.
Lynn

I so agree with you Lynn.

If all you had to go on were newspaper and news reports you would be forgiven for thinking that while your house was worth £150k last month it's now gone down to £100k!

There's nothing visibly happening in my area with regards to prices. However, this sort of scaremongering will only discourage people from putting their houses on the market, will cause people to avoid the houses that have just come up for sale (cos they'll be coming down in price). I expect to see some of those homes reducing their asking price or taking them off the market. Which they would probably not have needed to do in an area such as mine where the house prices are not overly high (in comparison to other areas) had they not seen scary reports left, right and centre about property market being the worst in 20 years! Eh??

I also agree with the rest. People might have bought their homes at pretty much their highest value 2 or 3 years ago and just about to finish their fixed rate deals. If prices have gone down a bit they might find they no longer have a mortgage which is worth 90% of house value or less, or worse for anyone who bought on a 100% mortgage. These are the people who will struggle to get a new deal. Even when they can get a new deal it will be nowhere near as good as what they had previously and if they've already borrowed 4/5 x their salary the increase in repayments could be what causes them to go over the edge financially.

The situation itself is not a rampant 'bust' situation but because of the silly lending that's been going on these past few years it might as well be (and I blame the government because they could have put a stop to this ridiculous lending, which is what forced house prices up in the first place).

So anyway, tightening of belts for many people who would have taken a holiday, this might just be the year (or next) where they have to say they can't do it and start to realise that you can only live on credit when the lenders allow you to.

what a load of rubbish about the credit crunch ?i am going to egypt for 2 weeks in july and then 2 weeks in oct on the algarve

Lucky you mick5eye!!!! Great that you can still do it, but we for one with my husband's job in the balence have to prioritise- £600 for a school bus pass, and potentially £1000 to pay out for musical instruments for the children have to come first. Having encouraged their music we can't turn round and say 'sorry kids, but that's our holiday!' we wouldn't dream of it, if we have to get the tent out so be it!!
We too have done OK this year, Disney at Christmas, then Skiing in Feb and 2 weeks in Turkey to look forward to, but all booked before life turned pear shaped, it's 2009 where we don't know. We would love to take the kids to Florida, but I won't book not knowing if we can pay for it or not.

Pam