Right time to buy?

clobber_2

I cannot see how a stamp duty holiday will help FTBs. At the moment SD places a bit of a brake on prices of houses valued around £125/250k, largely because who would buy a house for £126k if it means they have to pay SD as well? A SD holiday removes that incentive to keep asking prices below the threshold.

Willsnarf1983

the thing is, buying a house whenever is down to personal preferance, if your going to buy and live in the house for a fair amount of time...ie 5-8 years and you can afford the mortgage then the price is irrelivant.

Basically house prices, crashes etc etc are only relevant when you come to buy or sell....once ur doing neither and you can afford the mortgage repayments then it doesn't matter if its booming or crashing

Will

wymondham

Willsnarf1983 wrote: »

the thing is, buying a house whenever is down to personal preferance, if your going to buy and live in the house for a fair amount of time...ie 5-8 years and you can afford the mortgage then the price is irrelivant.

Basically house prices, crashes etc etc are only relevant when you come to buy or sell....once ur doing neither and you can afford the mortgage repayments then it doesn't matter if its booming or crashing

Will

Will, this view is aired time and time again. whilst it is true to a point, keep in mind that people buying now will (no longer 'if') get into negative equity, and probably more than any time in recent history if the drops being bounded about come true. This is fine as long as they can pay their mortgage - if circumstances change and they can't, then they probably also can't sell and are trapped in a very difficult financial mess. If people are aware of this, plan accordingly and still go ahead, then that's fine, but they need to keep it in mind......

with the crazy rises in fuel and food and increasing unemployment, circumstances can change very quickly....

EagerLearner

Incisor wrote: »

Lifting Stamp Duty help FTB? I doubt it. ANYTHING helps anyone EXCEPT FTB's. What really needs to happen is for sellers to take on board the fact that prices must be cut to enable FTB's to get on board. All a Stamp Duty cut will do is enable sellers to delay cutting prices for a little bit longer. It is always the case that the first home costs as much as the FTB can afford and a little bit on top.

Hi I didn't say it would make the situation perfect, but may help in areas that have lower priced properties. I don't need to be made aware of what FTB need or want - I know, as I am one of them. Sellers do however need to be more realistic in terms of prices.

If I could buy (at the right price) in the next 6 months without stamp duty, I would.

wymondham

EagerLearner wrote: »

If I could buy in the next 6 months without stamp duty, I would.

This is an interesting response, as it seems you're happy to buy if/when stamp duty is stopped/suspended etc, but the fact whatever you're buying will drop many times the stamp duty amount seems to not be such a problem... I'm confused how you can put more emphasis on stamp duty than price ...

EagerLearner

wymondham wrote: »

This is an interesting response, as it seems you're happy to buy if/when stamp duty is stopped/suspended etc, but the fact whatever you're buying will drop many times the stamp duty amount seems to not be such a problem... I'm confused how you can put more emphasis on stamp duty than price ...

I haven't - what I have said is I am interested in buying, full stop. The point is when and whether any incentive (such as stamp duty) would be worth it. I like the idea of no stamp duty, but geographically, this needs to be revised as there are no £125k properties where we live. Garages for that price, however, are abundant!

As we are all guesstimating here, I'd say that as we plan to stay at this supposed stamp duty free new property at least 5 years, it wouldn't make too many odds if we pay say £135k now and are content with where we live. This is the point Willsnarf makes. At any rate, I would prefer to buy when prices have already started to drop, rather than at the height.

We wouldn't over borrow, the main concern would be (for anyone) whether the economy will navigate through this, as if we lose our jobs it won't matter if we bought last year, now or in 2 years.

However for now, we are waiting and seeing like everyone else, preferring to pay rent than jump in at the wrong time. But nothing is being done by banks or government to convince me to even think about buying. Sellers and Estate Agents are also blaming the lack of FTB rather than the lack of sense in their prices. Hopefull this will change over the coming Winter/SUmmer 09.

andrewmp

jim83 wrote: »

First and foremost, you can't afford it. The most you can afford, or more accurately the most the banks can afford in the current climate, would be a property "worth" £75k. This is assuming you can use the full £15k you have as a standard 20% deposit, the rest is made up of a mortgage of 3x salary... It is currently possible to borrow between 3.5x and 4x salary, but mortgage providers currently require a larger deposit than £15k, which you don't have..

I've just bought and could get up to 4.25x salary with only a 20% deposit.

EagerLearner

'Only' 20% is very reasonable, however folks like MrEL and I only have 10%, so bottom of the barrel for us... if we're good enough for even that! :rotfl:

Incisor

EagerLearner wrote: »

Hi I didn't say it would make the situation perfect, but may help in areas that have lower priced properties. I don't need to be made aware of what FTB need or want - I know, as I am one of them. Sellers do however need to be more realistic in terms of prices.

If I could buy (at the right price) in the next 6 months without stamp duty, I would.

But lifting stamp duty will not be money in your pocket as FTB. It will go straight to the seller. The biggest help to FTB is the credit crunch, followed by FTBs turning their noses up at shared ownership, followed by sellers responding to the changed circumstances.

To live anywhere you must rent. The choice is rent a house or rent money. People have been renting too much money and buying not enough house with it. Even if you don't need to be told [I don't think you do], there are many others who do.

napoleon

andrewmp wrote: »

I've just bought and could get up to 4.25x salary with only a 20% deposit.

Name and shame the irresponsible lender please.