I reckon there has been more sales in December

owner

Well as a seller I've had more viewings in December than in November/October/September combined, obviously this doesn't directly reflect sales figures but it wouldn't surpise me to see sales creeping back up.

zcacmxi

In our area, things do not appear to be selling this month.

I did my usual search on rightmove and included "sold/under offer" properties. The same old properties were appearing for sale. There were no new sold properties. The same For Sale boards are up, none have changed to sold.

I also received a letter from the agent KFH saying the branch will be closed until Monday 5th January 2009.

The local agent Cockburns now appears to be closed permanently too....

So, on the contrary. I think December has been VERY slow.

mewbie_2

Slowdown for Xmas anecdotal: property pullout particularly thin this week. Which may mean more expense on buying real toilet rolls. I've told the wife to go easy, just one sheet at a time, but you know women, will they listen.

IveSeenTheLight

carolt wrote: »

Eh? No love either felt or lost.

It's the OP's call. No skin off my nose either way.

I just don't plan to follow him - not till the ground has stopped sloping downwards quite so vertiginously....

Hi carolt.

With NatWest offering 100% 5 year and 10 year fixed price mortgages to existing customers, do you think the bottom is still a long way off?

There has been a lot of tlk this month with Nationwide reporting only a 0.4% drop and Halifax a 2.4% drop, but I note that the LR shows a 1.5% drop for October
http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/011208.pdf

So prices are still dropping as shown below although not as vociforously as the previous two months but may still have an unknown time yet of further falls.

It may also be possible that this spring could see a bottoming out.

IveSeenTheLight

mewbie wrote: »

Slowdown for Xmas anecdotal: property pullout particularly thin this week. Which may mean more expense on buying real toilet rolls. I've told the wife to go easy, just one sheet at a time, but you know women, will they listen.

My dad once jokes with my wife that she could increase the size of her bust by using toilet role sheets.

Not by using them to pad out the breast area, but by rubbing the toilet roll sheets on the area in general.

Well it worked on her @rse didn't it

**NOTE** Only a joke, no offence intended

Darth_Marty

Just a quick observation, it seems people use Rightmove a lot for their observations, that may have been fine 12 months ago but as up to 70% of Agents have pulled out of Rightmove it is no longer the tool it once was. They were/are so, expensive that the easiest thing an agent could do to save 50k p.a was to leave Rightmove. And thats what they have done.

giruzz

Darth_Marty wrote: »

Just a quick observation, it seems people use Rightmove a lot for their observations, that may have been fine 12 months ago but as up to 70% of Agents have pulled out of Rightmove it is no longer the tool it once was. They were/are so, expensive that the easiest thing an agent could do to save 50k p.a was to leave Rightmove. And thats what they have done.

Where can we look then?

giruzz

Darth_Marty

no idea, id suggest the net house prices site but that can take a while to update, local agent sites and i know that a lot of agents are banding together with local papers to create a local "supersite" of properties, wait until jan/feb and you will see locally what i mean. The simple fact is Rightmove cost a shitload of cash and now that fee is unreasonable other sites are being created.

carolt

globrix is another one - have a vague feeling it might be free? - certainly v widely used and I think taking over as the industry standard.

carolt

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Hi carolt.

With NatWest offering 100% 5 year and 10 year fixed price mortgages to existing customers, do you think the bottom is still a long way off?

There has been a lot of tlk this month with Nationwide reporting only a 0.4% drop and Halifax a 2.4% drop, but I note that the LR shows a 1.5% drop for October
http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/011208.pdf

So prices are still dropping as shown below although not as vociforously as the previous two months but may still have an unknown time yet of further falls.

It may also be possible that this spring could see a bottoming out.

Why would I buy when even the head of Barclays says he expects prices to fall by another 15% this year? (as does Citigroup)?

With the houses I'm looking at, that's a saving of around 40K+ plus 25 years worth of interest - not a small sum of money.

Plus interest rates for FTB's are still quite high - the examples you quoted were for remortgages only. With interest rates widely expected to fall, it would make absolutely no (financial) sense to buy now. Without a desperate emotional/practical NEED to buy, which I don't have, I just couldn't justify it.

Plus if falls are greater, I'll save even more.