Real world examples of house prices

Homersimpson

Hi,

I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in this but I looked at lots of houses between June and November 2009 and have kept some of the details given to me by the agents (and also leaflets that they sent me through the post for houses that I didn't go and look at).

I thought it would be interesting to see whether they sold and if so what they sold for, the houses were generally in the Worcestershire area.

Small 2 bed semi-detached bungalow - reasonable area on a 155k - sold 147K

Small 2 bed bungalow - nice area required refurbishment on at 160k - sold 130k

3 Bed detached - nice house third bedroom tiny, very well presented on at 200k, reduced to 195k still not sold

Small 2 bed semi - very nice area for refubishment on at 165k - sold 175k!

3 Bed detached - reasonable area needed some modernisation on at 180k - sold for 160k

3 Bed semi - very nice area on at 190k - sold 180k

3 bed end terrace - ok area on at 170k - not sold

3 bed detached - reasonable area elevated plot on at 175k - not sold

3 bed detatached - poor area on at 135k not sold

3 bed semi - reasonable are on at 162.5k - not sold

3 bed detached - ok area on at 155k - not sold

4 bed semi - poor area on at 170k - notsold

3 bed end terrace - poor area on at 110k - not sold

3 bed semi - reasonable area needing modernisation on at 142.5k - sold 137k

4 bed detached house - reasonable area structural work required on at 195k - sold 185k

3 bed detatched reasonabel area on at 210k - not sold

2 bed semi - very nice village location in need of modernisation on at 185k - not sold


That probably around about half of the leaflets I have, (although I didn't look at all the houses, I don't have leaflets for others. In total I probably looked at 30 houses and offered on 3, two of which fell through (due to the vendor in both cases and in one case they decided that they wanted an extra 50k!) and the third one I got.

This may be a load of useless information but may be of interest to some of you as a real world study of house prices in 2009 despite all the reports in the papers.

kinglewis

Similar results in the area I live in.. most properties selling for under the asking prices. Therefore struggle to see where the rise in property prices comes in. Asking prices are certainly not increasing. I think prices are staying pretty static at the moment.

Lets see what a rise in rates will do to the market next.

Doozergirl

It's my area and I hope I have a good nose for prices in the area! If you want an additional angle to it, I'd love to give feedback on the asking prices.

If you can find the rightmove links for each of/some of the houses, then it would also give us something to look at!

Homersimpson

Doozergirl, additional feedback would be gratefully recieved. I hadn't wanted to post any links as I didn't thinkpeople would appreciate it they saw there house specifically mentioned.

Doozergirl

Homersimpson wrote: »

Doozergirl, additional feedback would be gratefully recieved. I hadn't wanted to post any links as I didn't thinkpeople would appreciate it they saw there house specifically mentioned.

We post up links to houses on rightmove all the time on this board and the debate board. If anybody saw their own house then I'm sure they'd let someone know and ask for it to be removed if they didn't want it here. I've not ever noticed that happen though!

googler

kinglewis wrote: »

Similar results in the area I live in.. most properties selling for under the asking prices. Therefore struggle to see where the rise in property prices comes in.

I can 'prove' a 16% rise in prices between first half and second half of 2009 in my county, with prices averaged over all properties - however, if you look at the various price ranges with regard to no. of sales and average prices (comparing first six months with July - Oct - will add Nov and Dec in when available);

Below £100k - sales down 20%, average price down £9000
£100-£150k - sales down 16%, avge price down £2000
£150-£200k - sales down 2%, avge price down £2000
£200-£300k - sales steady, avge price up £12000
£300-400k - sales up 93%, avge price up £3000
£400-£500k - sales up £166%, avge price up £4000
£500-£1mill - sales up 220%
£1mill+ -

No evidence the actual prices are up by any significant degree - a £4000 increase at £400,000 is a 1.00% increase - but clearly the healthier sales at the top end are distorting the figures, with everything below £200k having sales numbers down and average prices down.

Even with these local statistics (covering one county) there's regional variations within the county, so what relevance do any national averages have?

mbga9pgf

kinglewis wrote: »

Similar results in the area I live in.. most properties selling for under the asking prices. Therefore struggle to see where the rise in property prices comes in. Asking prices are certainly not increasing. I think prices are staying pretty static at the moment.

Lets see what a rise in rates will do to the market next.

AVERAGE prices are going up... Look at those figures. Its becuase only the nice properties are selling due to reduced volume, therefore, the AVERAGE price amongst semis, detatched, terraced, flats are rising.

Its to do with the sh*tty method the lenders use to calculate house prices....

goldengirl28

Hi Googler,

Are your figures a national view?

I've been monitoring the top and bottom of the market in my area and there is loads of movement in the 0-100k bracket but very little if any movement in the 350k+ end, which seems to be the opposite to your insight.

Anyideas why that is the case?

Doozergirl

kinglewis wrote: »

Similar results in the area I live in.. most properties selling for under the asking prices. Therefore struggle to see where the rise in property prices comes in. Asking prices are certainly not increasing. I think prices are staying pretty static at the moment.

Lets see what a rise in rates will do to the market next.

Just because houses are selling for below asking price, it doesn't necessarily mean that house prices in general are falling. The only thing you can draw from the fact that houses are selling for below asking is that, well, houses are selling for below asking!

I'd be inclined to agree with your observation but houses have actually been selling in the last 6 months which is a different case to a year ago where nothing was selling unless it was at total knock-down price from someone who had to sell. So movement coming into the market will show as a rise - It's an adjustment where house prices took a heavy drop when the numbers selling were tiny and the prices more like 'fire sale' prices.

I think what we've been seeing is a settlement - prices levelling out, the market not bouyant and full of people trading, but a slightly more balanced picture of buyers and sellers than there was, slightly in favour of the vendors in this area if they are pricing sensitively.

Back into traditionally quiet times but it will be interesting to see what Q2 brings.

googler

goldengirl28 wrote: »

Hi Googler,

Are your figures a national view?

I've been monitoring the top and bottom of the market in my area and there is loads of movement in the 0-100k bracket but very little if any movement in the 350k+ end, which seems to be the opposite to your insight.

Anyideas why that is the case?

I said - "between first half and second half of 2009 in my county", and all the figures that follow are likewise based on my county's figures, not national figures.

Trends will vary depending on where you are.