Compare Your Household Income 2009

[quek]

Originally Posted by Husky

Yup. Am currently waiting for the prices to drop a little. Resale flats are still very expensive. Just feel that the HDB ceiling really need to be revised. If I am not wrong the last time they revised it was in 1999.

How confident are you that prices will "drop a little"? Already there are people saying that the next boom cycle is already in the making and those who have not bought a house (be it HDB, condo or landed) will only see higher prices in the future.

Disclaimer: I'm also waiting...

[Husky]

Originally Posted by adbie

How confident are you that prices will "drop a little"? Already there are people saying that the next boom cycle is already in the making and those who have not bought a house (be it HDB, condo or landed) will only see higher prices in the future.

Disclaimer: I'm also waiting...

From my observations, seems like a lot of people have bought and are currently paying for "over priced" flats. I am pretty confident, some if not most of these people will eventually run into liquidity problems. When that happens, it should trigger off the start of a property market crash.

Pay freeze, lay offs, shrinking GDP and rising property prices? Doesn't sound right. Eventually the bubble will burst.

[quek]

Originally Posted by Husky

From my observations, seems like a lot of people have bought and are currently paying for "over priced" flats. I am pretty confident, some if not most of these people will eventually run into liquidity problems. When that happens, it should trigger off the start of a property market crash.

Pay freeze, lay offs, shrinking GDP and rising property prices? Doesn't sound right. Eventually the bubble will burst.

Whether the flats are over priced is subjective. I believe many of these buyers genuinely think that with the recent stock market uptrend, the real economy has bottomed and is already on the verge of recovery. So they rushed in, afraid of missing the "boat".

But for people with bearish views (like you and me), there is no "boat" to speak of at the moment. It's just an illusion.

[danc]

I'm also waiting for the right time to buy an HDB apartment. But I'm not sure if we will be losing out by waiting too long. It seems like this recession - said to be the worse of all modern recessions - has not affected most Singaporeans much. I still see lots of people thronging malls buying things by the dozen. Some people said that those not retrenched in fact are in a very good position to get ahead financially by investing in this downturn. The million dollar question is: exactly when to invest?

[Husky]

Prior to this bearish situation, we had a good bull run, asians in generally save more than the ang mos. Hence, most people's pockets are still padded with cash from the pre sub prime crisis. That could be part of the reason why we are still not seeing the full effects of the recession. There's somewhat of a delayed reaction.

As for people jumping in to buy property for fear prices will spike even higher. The way I look at it, how much higher can it go? People are willing to pay $500k for a flat in the central areas, what about $600k or $700k? There will come a point when they simply cannot afford it, when the price hits the theorical ceiling. Looking at the income stats, I believe the current prices are near that theorical max. Therefore, I choose to continue waiting. If prices rise, it can't possibly rise much more. If prices dip, it may drop up to 30%.

Another factor for the property market revival could be the agents themselves scaring people to believe prices could sky rocket some more if they don't grab their pegion holes soon.

[quek]

Originally Posted by Husky

Prior to this bearish situation, we had a good bull run, asians in generally save more than the ang mos. Hence, most people's pockets are still padded with cash from the pre sub prime crisis. That could be part of the reason why we are still not seeing the full effects of the recession. There's somewhat of a delayed reaction.

As for people jumping in to buy property for fear prices will spike even higher. The way I look at it, how much higher can it go? People are willing to pay $500k for a flat in the central areas, what about $600k or $700k? There will come a point when they simply cannot afford it, when the price hits the theorical ceiling. Looking at the income stats, I believe the current prices are near that theorical max. Therefore, I choose to continue waiting. If prices rise, it can't possibly rise much more. If prices dip, it may drop up to 30%.

Another factor for the property market revival could be the agents themselves scaring people to believe prices could sky rocket some more if they don't grab their pegion holes soon.

My feel is that such "pent-up demand" will very soon be exhausted. The situation now is like every single HDB dweller that has some savings is jumping onto the bandwagon to be the next condo upgrader. Typical reasons they give: (1) my job is secure, (2) interest rates are close to historical lows, and (3) prices are low.

The only problem is that (1) is an assumption, (2) may change any time and for (3), prices may go even lower.

Just my 2 cents.

[Husky]

Let's hope we are both right. I don't wanna pay $600k for a flat!!!

Originally Posted by adbie

My feel is that such "pent-up demand" will very soon be exhausted. The situation now is like every single HDB dweller that has some savings is jumping onto the bandwagon to be the next condo upgrader. Typical reasons they give: (1) my job is secure, (2) interest rates are close to historical lows, and (3) prices are low.

The only problem is that (1) is an assumption, (2) may change any time and for (3), prices may go even lower.

Just my 2 cents.

[bjhchong]

Hmm, I find these 2 tools as whole lot of fun (seriously) & somewhat motivational towards myself to strife on with the rat race...

I guess to some its also stressful. But monetary returns aside, let's not forget our health & general well-being too...

It's good to compare, but please, let's not stress ourselves over these & let's all work hard (AND smart) for a better tomorrow

Where are the tools to compare income? I can't find any in this web site.

[Husky]

1. Go to the main site. Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore

2. Look out on the right side for the header "Recommended"

3. Choose the benchmark you are interested in. There's annual pay, household income, and by age and gender.