I am 23 and that would definately be a factor. I think if houses were 'cheap' and werent overpriced or 'about to crash'. Property would be much more strongly looked at. For me I think it was the case of you start making some coin, and want to find some where sensible to put it. Today with the internet and the tech savvyness of us youngins and general education level, we look for something to do with it. Houses being too expensive are definately a factor I think. Gold/Silver is something tangible. 10 years ago it made a lot more sense to buy property, these days it does not. The only people still buying property (In a general sense) today I feel are those that are either blindly ignorant/stupid to things or those that have been buying for the last 15 years and already have a sizeable position and it is what is known and they have 'blinkers' on to the rest of the world. What I think is a danger for us younger people is that in 10 years or so or at whatever point PM's become overvalued that we won't have blinkers on to the rest of the world then and see it for what it is. All we have known is rising pm prices, we are largely ignorant of the 20 year bear market. At some point in the future gold/silver will be what property is today. Let us not forget that.
Yes. When houses were cheap, I was using all my surplus income to wipe out my student loan. As I started saving for a house deposit, house prices entered the boom period. Now I'm at the point where I have enough cash for a sizable deposit, but even then mortgage repayments would be a stretch (due to the stupidly high prices) and I know which direction prices are heading in the next few years, so I'd be a fool to buy now anyway. Instead I converted 50% of my cash savings into physical gold and a little silver. I was going to buy a lot more silver, but then I discovered FOFOA's blog and after many hours reading agreed with his views and bought more gold instead.
I was selling some furniture to a young couple that just bought a house... I said "your game buying a house when the market has dropped 20% and looks like it will drop further"... he said "noooo... nows the best time to buy"... i just smiled and counted the sheep as i drifted back into my silvery dream.
