Anyone else living in a parallel universe?

A._Badger

There seems to be a regular mob of people ready to shout down anyone who dares suggest things aren't quite as uniformly bad as... well, as bad as what? I'm tempted to think it's 'as bad as they would like them to be'.

I have been looking at house prices in parts of East Sussex and Kent and not all of those have dropped precipitously. Meanwhile, a friend is trying to buy a flat in Hampstead or Highgate and reports the same. Less salubrious areas surrounding the area she is looking in are falling, but in the 'nicer' parts she is interested in, prices are pretty firm. It's similar down in Sussex/Kent.

Similarly, business is not at crisis levels everywhere, though it is genuinely atrocious in some sectors, like the motor trade and the media.

No recession is universally awful - not even a depression. Some sailed through the 1930s more or less unscathed. That doesn't make it any more enjoyable for those who suffer, but there's nothing to be gained from pretending it's worse than it is for the sake of a vicarious thrill of doom.

Blunty

I'm not sure even the Lake District is immune from house price deflation, Ladylake. I found a property in Kendal on houseprices.co.uk with the following details:

26/8/2005 £253k
22/9/2006 £425k
06/01/2009 £235k

It was one of only 6 properties to sell in the LA9 postcode since the start of the year.

Adebisi

Blunty wrote: »

I'm not sure even the Lake District is immune from house price deflation, Ladylake. I found a property in Kendal on houseprices.co.uk with the following details:

26/8/2005 £253k
22/9/2006 £425k
06/01/2009 £235k

It was one of only 6 properties to sell in the LA9 postcode since the start of the year.

Kendal is not 'really' the lake district it's a s**t hole

cogito

Adebisi wrote: »

Kendal is not 'really' the lake district it's a s**t hole

Beat me to it. Even the people living in Kendal refer to it as the Gateway to theLakes. You might as well say Bradford is in the Yorkshire Dales because parts of them have a BD postcode.

Blunty

How about Windermere, then?

18/08/06 £330k
21/01/09 £287k

But then, I suppose Windermere is 'not really' the Lake District, either...

lostinrates

A._Badger wrote: »

There seems to be a regular mob of people ready to shout down anyone who dares suggest things aren't quite as uniformly bad as... well, as bad as what? I'm tempted to think it's 'as bad as they would like them to be'.

I have been looking at house prices in parts of East Sussex and Kent and not all of those have dropped precipitously. Meanwhile, a friend is trying to buy a flat in Hampstead or Highgate and reports the same. Less salubrious areas surrounding the area she is looking in are falling, but in the 'nicer' parts she is interested in, prices are pretty firm. It's similar down in Sussex/Kent.

Similarly, business is not at crisis levels everywhere, though it is genuinely atrocious in some sectors, like the motor trade and the media.

No recession is universally awful - not even a depression. Some sailed through the 1930s more or less unscathed. That doesn't make it any more enjoyable for those who suffer, but there's nothing to be gained from pretending it's worse than it is for the sake of a vicarious thrill of doom.

A froend in Hampstead village has in the last few weeks dropped the price of their flat just over 15% to a nice round number, but I'm not following prices in general there.

I was looking in Kent and East Sussex as part of my wider search but decided eventually they were too far from my parents should they need me in an emergency: prices in general for the type of property I'm looking at were significantly cheaper there that in other places I'm looking at. I'm considering viewing something on border of E/W Sussex this week, but its the same price as the house that got away, for a lot less, a bit of a pricing anomoly really, and depite liking the area its not got any closer to home. But, price reductions were happening in Kent and E sussex when I was looking regularly there, and in fact, the first houses outside of my area to show reduction were in those areas.

Davesnave

A.B. you talk sense on the gardening forum, and I think you've added a sense of perspective here too. Of course the depression is hitting hard in some places and scarcely registering in others; it's only about 6 months old!

Personally, apart from losing a bit of interest on some of our stash, we're unaffected. My BIL, who's a contracts manager in the building trade is still busy as well, but he works for a specialist firm who may eventually suffer, as ongoing work completes. Not at the moment though. I know of no one among my friends and acquaintances who's suffering real hardship. We live in a relatively affluent area with a well-diversified economy.

Looking about at the places where we might buy next, I don't see much movement on the type of smallholding we'd like in places like Monmouthshire or the South Hams. I can well believe the Lake District is similar. We won't be expecting to purchase in any of those places. Yes, we've seen houses with land drop by £50k+ around Launceston, Cardigan and in Herefordshire, to choose some random examples, so we know we're not wasting time by hanging on, but these haven't been the best properties. Others we saved on Rightmove two whole years ago are still sitting there: same price, no action.

Unfotunately, it looks like everything will take a long time to play out, but we need at least £100k+ off what we'd have paid in '07, and preferably more. Being brutally honest, the worse things get, the more likely it is to happen quickly. We don't wish anyone ill, just that those selling take the drop ASAP, same as we did. Once house prices return to affordability, the economy may start to pick up again, slowly.

Meanwhile, we'll sit on our assets..... There will be people to employ and things to buy once we're settled again. Basically, we don't want a pile of money, we just want sensible pricing. The sooner people get their heads out of the sand, the better for everyone.

whathavewedone

Hi Lostinrates

Whereabouts in Kent are you looking to buy? East Sussex is a bit cheaper I think because they don't have grammar schools. There are also parts of Kent which are cheap because the local schools are really bad - this happens in a lot of the pretty villages because of travellers.

I don't know if schools are important to you or not but it might be worth just checking the ofsted reports of the schools near to where you're looking as it could be important when you come to sell - unless you aren't looking to move for a long time.

We got excited about a lot of houses we saw when we were looking to buy in Kent (and this was at the top of the market) but then dismissed them because of schools. I would imagine that these sorts of properties would have fallen fastest as people won't be likely to buy them now that houses near good schools are becoming more affordable.

The market will rise eventually and if you're close to good schools you'll get more for your house even if it's not important to you personally. For that reason I'd choose Kent over East Sussex even though you might get more house for your money there.

lostinrates

whathavewedone wrote: »

Hi Lostinrates

Whereabouts in Kent are you looking to buy? East Sussex is a bit cheaper I think because they don't have grammar schools. There are also parts of Kent which are cheap because the local schools are really bad - this happens in a lot of the pretty villages because of travellers.

I don't know if schools are important to you or not but it might be worth just checking the ofsted reports of the schools near to where you're looking as it could be important when you come to sell - unless you aren't looking to move for a long time.

We got excited about a lot of houses we saw when we were looking to buy in Kent (and this was at the top of the market) but then dismissed them because of schools. I would imagine that these sorts of properties would have fallen fastest as people won't be likely to buy them now that houses near good schools are becoming more affordable.

The market will rise eventually and if you're close to good schools you'll get more for your house even if it's not important to you personally. For that reason I'd choose Kent over East Sussex even though you might get more house for your money there.

Were not looking in Kent anymore, its the distance thing.

and,no, ofstead reports etc don't impact on our decision. School results while always relevant, are I'm guessing, less impactful on the type of property I'm looking for.

We are slowly narrowing down our search are,and east of London is now off the list. Primary areas would be Hampshire/Wiltshire now, but essentially I keep a vaguely attentive eye across the south from the chilterns to the medips.

The point I was really making is that I have seen dfrops in areas where it was suggesting they are not dropping at all.

In fact, I've been trawling through my saved properties to check saved details to confirm this.

whathavewedone

Well there have certainly been drops where I live (around 15% I think) and Tunbridge Wells has fallen even further (20% at least).