Are house prices really going down?

Paulgonnabedebtfree

PasturesNew wrote: »

You're being impatient. Yes, prices are really going down.

Every property is different. The seller's situation is different.

i.e. if you view a house at £289k that's been on since January, and offer £250k they will say no, if they were wanting to sell they'd have dropped it lower sooner

If you view a house at £289k that's been on 2 weeks, it's too soon for them to accept your offer or they'd have priced it at about £260-265k.

Every one is different.

Just wait. There's the whole of 2009 to go yet, then 2010. Things won't be much better in 2011 except by then they'll be priced at the right price so you won't need to put low offers in.

Of course it depends on circumstances as you say. One thing that many people overlook is the amount of rent they might pay while waiting for house prices to reduce more. Not applicable to everyone of course !!

ftb_home_dream

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Most of the properties you have mentioned are £329k at peak.
With the reported average 14.8% drop, this would put them at approx £280k
You can understand why they might be reluctant to drop a further 11% or 12%

I can understand where the sellers are coming from. BUT property prices are going down and that 10-12% is to keep myself safe from the next year or two drop. I'm taking a risk buying now and I'm prepared to take that risk if I could have that 10-12% safety in my pocket. It is not bad if I lose 10% from what I have paid for for this property if the market goes down by 20% over the new few years. That's the idea behind this. As for the sellers, if they have sold for low price they could buy somewhere for low price. It will even out for them so they won't be left out in cold will they?

disney_cjd

I think there are lots of factors in this.

Those propertys may well have already taken a fall into account when pricing them. The thing is to look on sites like www.ourproperty.co.uk and see what other houses sold for six months ago and then take the 20% off.

Then thats not all. Areas matter. For example in Sevenoaks where I am our little house we are trying to sell we will be lucky to get 275 for. The last one sold idenitcal to ours sold in June for 317. But if we want to buy something bigger the prices have not fallen. We are watching this closely, one example (out of our budget) but a lovely house sold for 760k in April. Last week the house next door went up for 780k so thats an increase for a smaller house.

Some people do not want to accept that thier property has fallen.

I would have a look at our property and try and look for houses for sale now with a previous sale price on there. You can see what and when people bought them and if they are taking the mick or not and also what price in that road etc is

HTH
CJD

PasturesNew

I've been looking at 1995-2000 prices a lot ... and damn they seem the "right prices"!

ftb_home_dream

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been looking at 1995-2000 prices a lot ... and damn they seem the "right prices"!

I would say even 2002 and 2003 prices seem more reasonable. In answering your previous question, yes I use property-bee. I would prefer not to give out area I'm looking for because of my local EA's use these forums.

We are taking a risk buying in this market. We never know property prices may fall 10-20% over the next few years or even further. We need to get those properties under 250K stamp duty threshold otherwise it is not worth it and it is high risk. That's the target we have set ourselves.

Cat695

I guess you have to do your maths and see if its cheaper to rent than to buy you stay put

when its cheaper to buy than to rent then get looking


oooo I've just realised that was my 1001 post woohoo

huntersc

ftb_home_dream wrote: »

I would say even 2002 and 2003 prices seem more reasonable. In answering your previous question, yes I use property-bee. I would prefer not to give out area I'm looking for because of my local EA's use these forums.

We are taking a risk buying in this market. We never know property prices may fall 10-20% over the next few years or even further. We need to get those properties under 250K stamp duty threshold otherwise it is not worth it and it is high risk. That's the target we have set ourselves.

I think you're overstating the stamp duty issues. The SDLT you'd be paying is minuscule compared to the drops you could experience if prices drop another 10-20%.

Don't get too fixated on stamp duty. If the house is the right price then it's the right price. If a £700k house drops to £251k then I wouldn't personally be worrying about getting it down to £249k.

hethmar

Out of interest, how do you know your local EAs use these boards and for what reason do they use them?

As people have said everyone must have a figure which they cant drop below because they may be up to their eyes in mortgage. No point selling if they then cant buy the place they wanted.

HammersFan

Just focus on getting the house that's right for you. That isn't just a finiancial decision as some would have you believe. But if you're primarily worried about finances I'd wait a month or two for very low fixed rate mortgages (high 3%s) and then look seriously with an agreement in principle - do it as long as you can find somewhere you are willing to stay put for a while.

EdInvestor

I suppose it's pointless to note that if you want to buy a house and can comfortably raise funds to the tune of 250k, then it might be sensible to put in an offer on a property listed at 250k?

Do you not realise that anyone with a property listed at 300k will view your offer as derisory not only because it's too low, but also because you clearly lack credibility mortgage-wise and are likely to be unable to follow through.

Which would be a waste of everyone's time.

It's a pity FTBs are being led astray by the speculators on this forum.