MSE News: House prices fall for first time in four months (-0.1%)

Cleaver

mewbie wrote: »

That's very nice. We shall see if the love is strong enough over the next few years.

For the record, I don't personally love houses as such, hence living in a sh*t-hole ex-local authority block of flats. It's home though.

With regard to your point about 'the love', I wasn't saying either way that it will or won't be strong enough to do whatever it is that it would need to do, if that makes any sense.

I'm just saying that it's interesting that normally a crash in something tends to very much put people off buyingwhat they were itching to buy when it was on the way up. The 'herd' normally move on to the next big thing. And I expected to see some of this with property, but just listening to people talk and getting a sense of what the public think, this 'love' of houses just seems to be ever-present. This crash has made me a lot more wary of buying somewhere and will certainly make me think about when we stick our money next. For many though it just seems that "now is a good time to buy, they are cheaper."

mewbie_2

Cleaver wrote: »

Stuff

Yeah, actually I think you are right. They will keep buying, if they can. However I've lived through a crash and it is quite amazing how they just keep getting lower. Seems to go on forever.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Demanufacture wrote: »

The weird thing is I'm suffering absolutely no panic whatsoever that I should have bought in Feb, why is that ?,

A misguided belief that prices will fall back again?

in my area prices are still 20% down,

If you give us a town or postcode area, we can confirm that easily enough.

If they are 20% down, and have not risen lately, that would put you in less than 1% of local districts in the UK.

sales are very few compared to normal, mortgage availability is low without a huge deposit and all this with record low IR's.

Sales are up 80% since trough, mortgage availability for new purchase has been rising all year, IR's are going nowhere fast.

Stagnation is the best hope for the housing market, the worst case is that IR's will rise and force more of a correction,

The housing market has risen by 8.5% this year so far. That's hardly stagnation.

in the meantime I'm happy to keep saving and reducing that future mortgage to zero.

If you are able to save over £12,500 in just 7 months, that puts you in a tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people in the UK. For most people, that type of strategy is pie in the sky nonsense.

mewbie_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

If you are able to save over £12,500 in just 7 months, that puts you in a tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people in the UK. For most people, that type of strategy is pie in the sky nonsense.

Actually Hamish I saved 85k today. I didn't buy an overpriced BTL sh1thole. That's in just one day. Wait till you see what I save tomorrow.

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

A misguided belief that prices will fall back again?

Even you claim that prices will fall on some threads.

But if someone else thinks it, they are misguided?

Cleaver

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Even you claim that prices will fall on some threads.

But if someone else thinks it, they are misguided?

It's called the Hamish Paradox. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamish_Paradox

There's a Graham Devon Contradiction Theorem too, but let's not go in to that now.

carolt

Cleaver wrote: »

For the record, I don't personally love houses as such, hence living in a sh*t-hole ex-local authority block of flats. It's home though.

With regard to your point about 'the love', I wasn't saying either way that it will or won't be strong enough to do whatever it is that it would need to do, if that makes any sense.

I'm just saying that it's interesting that normally a crash in something tends to very much put people off buyingwhat they were itching to buy when it was on the way up. The 'herd' normally move on to the next big thing. And I expected to see some of this with property, but just listening to people talk and getting a sense of what the public think, this 'love' of houses just seems to be ever-present. This crash has made me a lot more wary of buying somewhere and will certainly make me think about when we stick our money next. For many though it just seems that "now is a good time to buy, they are cheaper."

I think the desire for a secure home will always be present - it's human nature - for as long as rental laws remain as they are, and renting remains insecure.

However, the desire to own 10 properties, or 700, say - that is clearly not an innate desire - it's a business fad, like investing in tulips. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but....

Cleaver

carolt wrote: »

I think the desire for a secure home will always be present - it's human nature - for as long as rental laws remain as they are, and renting remains insecure.

However, the desire to own 10 properties, or 700, say - that is clearly not an innate desire - it's a business fad, like investing in tulips. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but....

Yeah, agree with all of that.

I guess the only question (that neither you or I know the answer to) is whether buying a load of properties to rent out is a fad, or something that will remain a constant, albeit going in and out of vouge every 20 or 30 years. Like investing in funds, shares or gold.

Cleaver

Promised_You_A_Miracle wrote: »

Keep safe Cleaver x

I find that post quite, quite chilling.

mewbie_2

Cleaver wrote: »

I find that post quite, quite chilling.

Nah, I think that if we ever acquired a real life stalker - you know silent phone calls, blank letters, that sort of thing - we'd just laugh and say "oh it's that Mr B. playing games". Be quite annoying for a real stalker.