You can't buck the (housing) market

An instructive tail of wishful homeowner thinking in the Daily Mail:

Gilly Vines, 36, and her husband Richard planned to sell their two-bedroom flat in Exmouth, Devon, now they have two young children, and buy a house with a garden. But the flat wouldn't shift, so Mrs Vines applied for a let-to-buy mortgage, which allows homeowners to borrow for a new home while renting out their old property. Yet the valuation on their flat was £10,000 less than expected

(my emphasis). Umm, well, that doesn't seem terribly inconsistent. Flat is overpriced - flat won't sell. Flat is overpriced - flat valuation is less than asking price. One is led to the inexorable conclusion that their flat isn't worth as much as they thought.

Those readers with memories that reach past 2008 might enjoy the following complaint:

Halifax, Bank of Ireland, the Co-operative and Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks have all lifted their SVRs this year to between 3.99 and 4.95 pc. West Bromwich Building Society charges 5.84 pc — nearly 12 times the Bank of England base rate.

Oh noes! 5.84% interest! Whatever shall we do? I know, let's look at the 2007 typical variable mortgage rate, shall we? That looks like a solid 7.5% to me.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as the esteemed Mr. Wadsworth in claiming that the entire UK economy is being run for the benefit of homeowners, but it really does appear that the Daily Mail is trying to defend the home-owning indefensible here.