House prics "gap"

Via FT

It's all over paper/tv/radio

House prices 'see sharp decline'

Is it the start of a new phase of accelerating downward trend? Hard to say, put the trend is definitly tend, a lot of people bet their home that it would not. That's only the beginning - see the mortgage market.

Talking about mortgage market, it's more of a return to normal than a crunch for the moment. Who could think that a 125% mortgage is a sensible idea?

2 days later

South London

London Zoo

Scary title

House prices 'will crash soon': Bank chiefs warn YOUR home is overvalued by 30 per cent


UK housing - “Sell everything!”

Cost of living

What is the cost of living index?

The cost-of-living index, or general index, shows the difference in living costs between cities. The cost of living in the base city is always expressed as 100. The cost of living in the destination is then indexed against this number. So to take a simple example, if London is the base (100) and New York is the destination, and the New York index is 120, then New York is 20% more expensive than London. Similarly, if London is the base and Budapest is the destination, and the Budapest index is 80, than the cost of living in Budapest is 80% of London's.
...

The figures below indicate the sum of individual weights attributed to all the items which compose each of the index categories. They are as follows:

Shopping basket   25.0 
Alcoholic beverages   3.5 
Household supplies   4.5 
Personal care   4.0 
Tobacco   2.5 
Utilities   6.5 
Clothing   13.0 
Domestic help   3.5 
Recreation & entertainment   18.0 
Transportation   19.5 
TOTAL   100.0