this is interesting: House prices fell in last quarter 2006

exil

Want to know why house prices are high? Look at the many threads talking about buying second properties, to rent, or for their offspring, now that they've paid off their own mortgage. Demand exceeds supply!

Basically, we are going to see a kind of two-tier market where those who have well-off parents will be able to get into the housing market, the rest will have to rent, even if they have a good salary.

Deemy

exil wrote:

Want to know why house prices are high? Look at the many threads talking about buying second properties, to rent, or for their offspring, now that they've paid off their own mortgage. Demand exceeds supply!

Basically, we are going to see a kind of two-tier market where those who have well-off parents will be able to get into the housing market, the rest will have to rent, even if they have a good salary.

Yes, but as with the stocks bear market...when your in a housing bear market,the buyers disappear ! Like magic

muffle_2

What these figures suggest to me is that house prices are remaining relatively stable which is good news for those who can't afford to enter the market jsut yet. They're not being left behind. It also suggests that it is once again more of a buyer's market and a reasonable discount can be negotiated off the asking price.

I cannot believe how unlucky the current FTB generation have been to be entering the market after the property boom, while many of the previous generation have made an absolute killing. The problem is it's looking like it's going to take many years before house prices are at realistic levels again. FTBs now have to rely on their families for deposits and most will end up living with their parents well into their 30s. For well-earning couples a house is attainable but single people haven't got a chance.

I saw on TV this week a couple who made £500,000 simply by buying their London hosue during the recession and selling at the peak of the property boom. Ridiculous.

tomstickland

lush_walrus wrote:

Listen to no one, go out there and see for yourself. If you are thinking of buying, go to the EAs in the area you want and see the prices and moniter it yourself. Statistics are not going to help anything if in reality you experience something else.

I agree, this is exactly what I'm doing at the moment. I've seen more and more sub £100K properties coming onto the market in the last 6 months in the local area and I believe that prices have been falling for this sort of property.

I'm 33, single and would like to live somewhere reasonably nice. After all, I do work hard, pay my taxes etc. I can afford to live somewhere small and reasonably nice, which isn't too bad I suppose. The waiting game is boring me now though. Keep saving and see what the next few months bring.

zag2me

meanmachine wrote:

And house prices ain't going nowhere for the next 5-10 years while FTBers remain at historically low rates.

First time buyers have been completely replaced by Buy to Let landlords, and FTB's will always buy, it just takes them longer to save up now.

sm9ai

I love these so called price rises.

As a wanna be ftb I have studied the prices for the last 12 months hoping for a drop. Its hasn't dropped but it certainly hasn't risen at the claimed percentages.

I mean a 5% rise on a £120,000 house would be £126,000 which is a huge difference. This just simply hasn't happened in my town at least.

zar

I expect some of you knowledgeable people on here already know about these but I just found some nice housing market reports released every month here. Probably all information you can glean from other sources but nice to see it all together, and with no media spin - though of course there will always be some "spin" depending on how you present the results and some of the data is from places like the halifax index.

tomstickland

Great info!

Some of the English is poor though, for example "the trends are indexed to November for ease of comparability". What's wrong with "ease of comparison"?