WTB: when will you start looking?

WTF?_2

mitchaa wrote: »

Will they

Mortgages and rent are miles apart at the moment.

Ask someone like NDG who rents a place probably worth in excess of £500k but for a small £1250pcm.

On paper and in comparison to how much this would cost to mortgage, rents are already low in comparison in their majorities.

I can see your point if there was an equilibrium, but there is not.

I thought that rents would rise as economic conditions worsened due to less buyers and therefore more rental demand but I was wrong - as far as I can tell based on anecdotal evidence so far, they are falling.

I think a key factor is that rents are going to be governed by available income rather than prices which are driven by availability of mortgage credit.

WTF?_2

Chris2685 wrote: »

I just looked back at some of the properties I was looking at last summer. They were all still for sale, and most of them had not dropped their prices much at all!

Pretty big stale mate it seems.

More than a few people who believe this'll all be over by Christmas, I think.

Perhaps they should listen to the increasing number of opinion-makers who say that this is going to be a drawn out affair. If they are in a precarious financial position and planning on a fast exit they could well find themselves in deep water, quickly.

Again, all seems to depend on the governments ability to stimulate inflation through lending/borrowing. Maybe they can engineer inflation to prop up the housing market but the price is going to be horrendous.

pandamonia

mitchaa wrote: »

Martin was on Radio 1 earlier talking about the credit crunch and when the best time to buy a home would be.

If prices drop more than 7% per year, you are better off renting, if they fall less than 7% in a year you are better off buying.

12 x 0.5% falls would be 6% so in this case you would be better off buying.

Come from the horses mouth himself.

I suspect 0.5% falls per month would be less than your typical rents hence better off buying.

Prices have fallen over 1% per month for the last year so obviously your better off renting.

kennyboy66_2

mitchaa wrote: »

Martin was on Radio 1 earlier talking about the credit crunch and when the best time to buy a home would be.

If prices drop more than 7% per year, you are better off renting, if they fall less than 7% in a year you are better off buying.

12 x 0.5% falls would be 6% so in this case you would be better off buying.

Come from the horses mouth himself.

I suspect 0.5% falls per month would be less than your typical rents hence better off buying.

Love to see the maths behind this, it seems fairly improbable.

Cleaver

pandamonia wrote: »

Prices have fallen over 1% per month for the last year so obviously your better off renting.

From a purely financial point of view of course.

clobber_2

I don't know (short answer).

We could afford to buy now, partly because our deposit has grown while we live in rented accomodation and partly because house prices have dropped quite a lot already.

One particular house came on the market in december and looks lovely - and certainly a lot better than we could have afforded 18 months ago.

I am getting bored with our flat and want to live somewhere I can hang up pictures and put shelves up and have a garden.

I'm not overly worried about a further dip in house prices after buying as I had never intended to overstretch myself after all, although obviously I'd rather not pay over the odds.

What does worry me is the possibility of being stuck with a house that I need to leave behind. In about 6 years time my partner and I will be looking for proper jobs, and given the way things are going might need to live apart for a short while or relocate completely.

I reckon this is going to go on for a while. From a personal angle I would like to be in a new house by christmas but I think it might well be financially daft.