Things that are just bafflingly expensive

You could just as well say [size of housing stock remaining fairly constant]+[desire for buy-to-let as an investment alternative to underperforming pensions]=[demand to buy outstrips supply]+[demand to rent met by supply]. This needn't necessarily be a bubble, it could just be a change in market (and cultural) conditions.

It's probably a bubble, mind.

cross posts

For houses in particular and especially on buy-to-let, the "real" future value is basically their rental return, which isn't increasing much beyond inflation. More bubbles than Fairy, here.

But you can't live in tulips. xposts

Hm, that analysis looks like it's examining the housing market in a vacuum to me, without reference to outside factors like a disastrous pensions system and a tax system which (I think) has been geared to encourage the private rented sector since the 80s.

Also it seems to me that a lot of the buytolettists are only looking to cover costs, because what they want is the asset at the end, which warps the concept of "real" value a bit, doesn't it?

Anyway, as I say (and as I've likely just demonstrated) I don't know what I'm on about.

Yes and no. The buytolettists are probably the ones driving the bubble, to be honest. Like everyone who wanted in on this South Seas company, they see a quick buck.

But the prices they're paying mean that quickly the rent they have to charge even to cover costs vastly outstrips the price renters will pay. The owners can take a loss, but eventually they'll have to get rid of the house. If that happens to a lot of people, the price will drop dramatically -- and the bubble bursts.

Your points about the market are good, but the reason a bubble is easier to see in houses is that everyone needs to live somewhere. The rental value is the price they're prepared to pay for that. If the cost of a house vastly outstrips it, it has been put there by some other factor. If that factor is actually based on the potential rental value that it's now outstripping, there's a big problem there.

Does that make sense? Speaking as someone who dropped economics to spend more time in bed on other things.

Also they always have new gizmos in them that haven't quite been mass produced yet and so are still expensive, like that adaptive cruise control that makes sure you're always the right distance from the car in front.

As for movie theater popcorn, I have no idea how anyone can finish off more than that one little bag you can get for about $2.50, and even that will sometimes present a challenge. I think five people can easily split the popcorn in one of those huge buckets. So that's not that bad. Now movie ticket prices, OTOH, namely the ones for the national theater chains, are getting out of control. When I have to pay for matinee prices that which just a few years ago would have been the regular price for a ticket, that becomes the time for me to switch over to our local movie theater chain permanently.

I went to buy a massive frying pan with a lid. I suppose I want more of a saute pan, but one that's not so deep so I can do massive fry up in one pan. The only one I could find that fitted this description was in Boswells for £63! For a pan! WTF?

37. Vanilla Extract

39. Dentistry

Amount I have paid since October: $150. Amount currently due: $100.

Yes, I have learned my lesson, but due to their tardiness in sending tickets it took me until November to figure out my infraction--meanwhile, they are still backlogging October tickets.

xp mach3 cartridges last a long time, at least 2 months each for me

This is so true. It seems to be worse in North America, for some reason.