its January everyone over spent last year and have just recieved their first cc bills after xmas

I want to buy somebody's Cold War!!

2007 will remembered as the year Micallef flooded the print market and thousands drowned in credit card bills...

Or....... the flippers bit off more than they could chew and finally started to choke on their own greed?

lol foundation, i was thinking the same thing

1. More people getting in on the action to make a quick buck.
2. Skint
3. Sell to buy more

Do you honestly think people care about the Global market? Its an interesting point, many older members with large financial outlays on property might think about it but do students or younger collectors?

I worry about the global market.

I'm an estate agent in London and the housing market at moment is 5h1t!!!

I need more houses to sell so I can feed my print habit (obsession/addiction)

It's not like you haven't had 10 good years though, let's be honest lol

OMG

An estate agent telling the truth.... ;D

Who do you work for if you dont mind me asking?

My opinion on the market, prices have to come down but with AGENTS promising vendors we're gonna be getting X amount of money on a downing market and you get genuine investors like myself telling them the facts of life (not the birds and the bees) but whats going on in the world of economics they think im crazy when im offering 30/40k below asking price. But its not my fault the AGENT has gone in saying its worth 300k but relisticaly and agents have agreed to this over valueing just to get business.
Prices in London need to drop @ least 15% this yr if not more.

I expect a rate cut of .25 next month and a further 3 rate cuts this yr. Over in america a further .5 was taken of today. 8 days. 1.25 has been taken of there interest rate.

economic crisis. Wait till the auction houses start filling up with reprocessions. estimating 150k repos this yr. Worst than 89

Like you say, you can only buy art when you have dispoasable income but with everything going up in price i.e. council tax/gas/electricity bills it will have an effect on the smaller stuff i.e. prints of £100-1500 but for the individuals who buy stuff @ 5k-1million they have no money problems, they have the resources to outlay.
Its just like the property market, the lower scale stuff i.e. first time buyer market will be effected why i suggest a 15% shake out is needed to kick things off again adn also a few rate drops. But unless banks start lending money to each other gain it will be very difficult to lend money to firth time buyers as they are concider high risk unless they are putting down 25%/30% deposits.
But for me a investor which has a few b2l propertys rents are going thru the roof as everyone alot of first tiem buyers are wondering how the market will swing. ive just sold a property and im cash ready to start buying when the price is right.

In a recession the art market is not unlike the housing market. The most popular areas may drop slightly but the less desirable areas get hammered. Of course this is followed by the recovery and most of the areas recover,some never do, with the best areas recover first and fastest.

Personally I buy in this particular area because I like some of the artists work. In a recession this market would become an investment wasteland but on the bright side it would be cheap to buy if what you wanted was the art.

I agree prices should be coming down, but agents are still "topping " the price just to get stock on. I have soo much stock at the moment overpriced that I can't shift it and have stopped taking on instructions just for the sake of it. Vendors expectation levels are still very high, it's as if they can't see what's happening around them or read the press and still think that they have the best house on the street / area.

I work in an "affordable" area of London where people can still buy a 3 bed house for £250 ish.

It's not all doom and gloom. Interest rates will drop and things'll start moving again.

It's not the best start to the year, but everyone you talk to in every industry at the moment is finding it hard

I think the fact that there have been a shitload of very average prints released in the past 3-6 months also has contributed to the glut at the moment.