House prices

westlondonbuyer

There are all sorts of people and websites taking extreme positions on house prices, and the reality is somewhere in between. Just put together as much information as you can on your own particular search area using as many of them as you have time for.

There may be improvements very specific to your area (such as a new tramlink, or a state school storming up the Ofsted rankings) which means your area is going up whilst others are going down. The prices here in London don't seem to have changed at all (and the asking prices have gone up) but where my mum lives, they've fallen 35% since their 2007 peak.

I personally find websites that record Land Registry data the most useful, as they confirm the prices of houses that have actually sold. The frustration is that details of completed sales don't make it onto the registry for months.

pararct

Why worry about it. You are buying a home to live in and I think everyone here will agree it will be worth more than you have paid for it come the end of the mortgage term in 25 years time.

Thats the problem today too many people speculate on what their property is worth, end of the day it is not their property until the mortgage is paid off. End of the day the Mortgage is just another fancy word for rent. Might be your name on the deeds but fail to pay back the loan and the lender will still take it from you.

westlondonbuyer

pararct wrote: »

Why worry about it. You are buying a home to live in and I think everyone here will agree it will be worth more than you have paid for it come the end of the mortgage term in 25 years time.

I think the problems come when you're not buying a house you're going to be in for 25 years. I can understand why people are incredibly cautious in that situation.

Five to seven years is a long time to spend in a first-time buyer 1-bed flat, for example. You're really at the mercy of life events at that age (eg job loss, marriage or baby) and then, if the housing market chooses to turn against you at the same time, it's potentially a hideous situation all round.

Catbells

liam_h wrote: »

Hi all.

Not sure if this has been asked before, sorry if it has.

I keep hearing people say house prices currently are at 2009 prices, or 2007 levels etc. As a FTB that has only just recently taken an interest in the market, I'm not sure what these levels are. I'm guessing 2009 prices were low, was 2007 prices lower than 2009 and where are we now roughly?

Anyone know? Thanks in advance

I was offered 1.3m for my house in 2007 and have just sold it for £1.2 last week. This is in London.

Pimperne1

Whilst the Housepricecrash data is extremely useful be advised that some of the posters are pretty anti home owner and if you took their advice you wouldn't have bought a house since about 2004.

Pimperne1

And the only place for advice that proved more wrong than Housepricecrash is Moneyweek. The Editor of Moneyweek, Merryn Somerset Webb has been predicting a Housepricecrash since about 2004 - meanwhile she only sold hers in about 2007 and has recently bought another (allegedly expecting to take a fairly significant loss on it - she only bought it because her daughter wanted a different coloured wall paper or some inane reason like that).

Catbells

Percy1983 wrote: »

Good point about looking locally, its looking great for me and things are coming down nicely.

Which part of the country do you live and by how much are the prices coming down?

I have the same sense that prices are coming down having looked for 5 months and watched SOME houses but by no means ALL reducing by around 7/8%. This is in an outer London region which is by all accounts different from elsewhere.

Percy1983

Personally I am looking at Oldham (Greater Manchester) and the surrounding areas and the overall trend is down.

I suppose it does shoe the 'average' house price means very little as to a point London and its still increasing prices are holding the average up from the looks of it.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Catbells wrote: »

I have the same sense that prices are coming down having looked for 5 months and watched SOME houses but by no means ALL reducing by around 7/8%. .

Percy1983 wrote: »

the overall trend is down.
.

Asking prices are irrelevant to actual sold prices, which is why property bee should come with a financial health warning for idiots.

In most areas, sold prices are stable or rising.

Doctor_Gloom

err I wouldn't listen to hamish the clown if I were you. He's been ramping house prices for yonks now. Probably because if they fall any more in value he'll be out on the street. There's only one way for house prices and that is down.