FTB advice - sit and wait or buy now?

Tunstallstoven

Hi

I appreciate this is difficult to answer because no-one knows what the future holds. But I'd like to gauge people's opinions in any case.....

My partner and I have always live in rented accommodation and pay around £420 pcm. We have been saving over the years and have enough for a deposit of around £65k. We've seen a house we like which is available at £160k.

With all the recent news about further falls in house prices, growing recession, etc. we're at a loss at what to do. Should we make the leap onto the ladder now and start chipping away at the mortgage, with the benefits of:

- enjoying the new home (and putting houses searches to rest!)
- putting our money to good use instead of spending it on rent (which to be fair is quite low. We can afford to save a lot whilst in rented which = larger deposit in the future)
- taking advantage of low interest rates.

Or should we wait and see whether (hope!) house prices fall and interest rates don't rise too high? If house prices fell significantly in the next 2-3 years, and we continued to save as we have been - we might be able to buy our first property outright or at least have a very small mortgage. OTOH, house prices may stay the same or rise, in which case we would have waited for nothing.

I'm sure we are not unique with our predicament!

Any advice/votes would be great to see what MS opinion is at the mo.

Cheers

Max

jig

Hi max,

Im in the same predicament as you, been saving for years and have a very big deposit now but just havent taken the leap! I've always gone with the thought that if I fall in love with a place and it is unlikely that I will find another like it to then I would take the leap...as in the decrease in price won't way up to finding the right place at the right time (if this makes sense!)

Good luck!

Jig

Running_Horse

Where is my crystal ball?

Buy a house if you want somewhere to live.

If you want to make a killing, ask on the house price forum.

They don't know any more than you, but love nothing more than posting up graphs pretending they do.

TrickyDicky

Long term trend for property has always been a slow rise (Im sure I saw from the 70s to now the general trend is 3% / year anyway, pretty much in line with inflation).

If you're looking for a home and not an investment, then anytime should be the right time to buy.

AndrewFirth

Historically after a price crash (be it a low level one) prices tend to flatten off for around 5 years. So in my opinion prices will not go up for the next 3 years or so. Rent levels are very low at the moment and landlords are finding it harder than a few years back to find tenants. I think rents will fall for a year or so and then start climbing and that will help prices go up.

History says that prices will not go up for around 5 years after a crash, but who knows this time?