House Price Crash

RHemmings

dougk wrote:

Because lots of people move around , upgrade, downgrade, move abroad etc.

Why are so many properties on rightmove empty? And sold with "no chain"? Not the majority, but I think that the "shortage" of property could be alleviated with policies that would help bring a lot of houses back into use.

The real problem is a shortage of affordable property. How many people in the country are living in families with an income of less than £25,000. How many houses are there that they can afford?

Hereward

RHemmings wrote:

Why are so many properties on rightmove empty? And sold with "no chain"? Not the majority, but I think that the "shortage" of property could be alleviated with policies that would help bring a lot of houses back into use.

The real problem is a shortage of affordable property. How many people in the country are living in families with an income of less than £25,000. How many houses are there that they can afford?

I think that there are a large number of people are living in households with income of less than £25,000 pa, but the size and location of the property they can afford will be dependent on several other factors, for example, how much savings do they have; do they current own a property; is their location flexible; etc.

RHemmings

Hereward wrote:

I think that there are a large number of people are living in households with income of less than £25,000 pa, but the size and location of the property they can afford will be dependent on several other factors, for example, how much savings do they have; do they current own a property; is their location flexible; etc.

Having a property already makes a very big difference if they are moving sideways, not up. But the longer that current prices are maintained, the more singletons, couples, and young families there will be that have been unable to buy as prices were already too expensive by the time that they got jobs, saved money, shacked up, and the like.

A_Fool_&_His_Borrowed_Mon

MORPH3US wrote:

Thats ok then, as long as you are sorry but get the house that you want on the cheap, who cares about the millions that face financial ruin, heartache, broken relationships and poverty!!

The same can be said of pricing out an entire generation, condemming them to debt-slavery. Also, anyone who buys now (or within the last 4years) should have done their research first to find out if they can afford it before blindly jumping into kamikaze-debt. :money:

backtomum

Well done to Martin. Thank god for a bit of sense in this ridiculous state of affairs. I truly believe that the media is panicking a lot of people to overcommit themselves to get on the ladder at all costs. Front pages dedicated to rising house prices just continue to ramp an already overpriced market.

WELL DONE MARTIN:j

gentleman_jim_3

This is an interesting thread...

Personally with:
-Unemployment up
-Inflation well above the bank of England's 2% target
-Further Interest rate rises expected
-Price of fuel and food increasing
-Increasing number of people in arrears

I expect to see house price inflation to grind to a halt or perhaps even reverse in the coming months...
Therefore I would not really recommend buying a house right now...

Then again this won't really matter to those of us who have/want homes and not houses - there is a difference between the two...

Just my opinion, take from it what you find useful and disgard the rest

RHemmings

going2die_rich wrote:

YES! DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T REALISTICALLY AFFORD!

I'm new here so I can feign ignorance and post this link that has probably been posted many times before.

http://danwho.net/mp/index.php?id=snl_dontbuystuff

makingendsmeet_2

We are so fortunate!! We brought our house 2 months ago with a 100% mortgage and really welcome a correction in prices, the bigger the better!!!!

We brought a shared ownership property from a housing association and had the option to buy 25% 50% or 75% share and the rest anytime after the first 12 months. We elected for the 25%. The way the housing association work it is they revalue the house when you wish to buy more. So in the event of a crash we lose a percentage of our 25% but at the same time save the same percentage of the remaining 75% we are buying. We paid £26250 for our share so lets say prices go down 50% over the next few years that means we have lost £13,125 but the saving on the 75% we are buying is £39,375. Hence making us a fantastic money saving advantage of £26250!!!!!!! ha ha so we have saved our original outlay.

MSE_Martin

Hi folks

I've been filming all day - for other programmes - so only just got back. I think Im going to write a blog explaining what I said and my thoughts on it - should be up tomorrow. Only just got to my desk now and got about 5 hours work to do!

Martin

MascaraMinx

RHemmings wrote:

And why does the "misfortune" of home-owners mean so much, but the "misfortune" of young families priced out of the house market mean so little? I personally believe that if house prices crash, it will only be a few who suffer "misfortune", but if prices continue at their current high values, far more people will suffer "misfortune". See the previous examples of people who lose equity in their home being able to move up the ladder more easily after a crash than if there had been no crash.

I see your point here. As a recently married almost 30 year old with a decent job who has only just been able to buy her first place I can relate to what you're saying. I just don't relish the prospect of being financially devastated should this "crash" occur simply because we couldn't wait for the market to stabilise as we want to get settled in our own home. And I can't help feeling a lot of people are sitting on the edges of their rented armchairs chuckling with glee at the prospect (not directed at individual poster in particular)

I'm looking forward to reading Martin's thoughts on this in more detail, will be waiting for his blog........