Land Registry May 2011 -0.4% MOM -2.2% YOY

edinburgher

Have to say things are starting to look a bit more realistic in my neck of the woods - attractive 2-3 bed flats in our leafy suburb have started to drop to affordable levels (not cheap, but enough we'd stand a chance of getting the requisite mortgage without killing ourselves).

That said, it's hard to tell exactly how much cheaper prices are as we're in Scotland and the housing market is infuriatingly opaque. For example 'offers over' (which used to mean 'add on 20-30% or get lost') seems to be replaced in EA literature with 'offers in excess' (which seems to mean 'please add on 10%').

When fixed price replaces 'offers in excess' I think we'll know it's time to buy

wherediditallgothen

edinburgher wrote: »

Have to say things are starting to look a bit more realistic in my neck of the woods - attractive 2-3 bed flats in our leafy suburb have started to drop to affordable levels (not cheap, but enough we'd stand a chance of getting the requisite mortgage without killing ourselves).

That said, it's hard to tell exactly how much cheaper prices are as we're in Scotland and the housing market is infuriatingly opaque. For example 'offers over' (which used to mean 'add on 20-30% or get lost') seems to be replaced in EA literature with 'offers in excess' (which seems to mean 'please add on 10%').

When fixed price replaces 'offers in excess' I think we'll know it's time to buy

When it gets to 'what will you give us?' then it's defnitely time to buy.

edinburgher

When it gets to 'what will you give us?' then it's defnitely time to buy.

I'm not greedy - as soon as we can get an extra bedroom for less than we currently pay in rent, I'll buy. Only £50/mth or so off!

IveSeenTheLight

Percy1983 wrote: »

Yes I will go for a fixed rate but currently the maximium on offer seems to be 3 years but the rates aren't attractive.

You can get longer fixes. Do a search.

Just a quick one, but here shows 5 year fixes from 4.29%
http://moneyfacts.co.uk/compare/mortgages/fixed-5-year/

they even have a 10 year fix from 5.49%

Here also shows 5 year fixes from 4.29%
http://www.money.co.uk/mortgages/fixed-rate-mortgages.htm

Percy1983 wrote: »

Essentially right now I will end up on base + 4-5% which could lead to massive problems when rates go back up.

A fix at 4.5% - 5.5%, many would see as historically quite low

geneer

edinburgher wrote: »

Have to say things are starting to look a bit more realistic in my neck of the woods - attractive 2-3 bed flats in our leafy suburb have started to drop to affordable levels (not cheap, but enough we'd stand a chance of getting the requisite mortgage without killing ourselves).

That said, it's hard to tell exactly how much cheaper prices are as we're in Scotland and the housing market is infuriatingly opaque. For example 'offers over' (which used to mean 'add on 20-30% or get lost') seems to be replaced in EA literature with 'offers in excess' (which seems to mean 'please add on 10%').

When fixed price replaces 'offers in excess' I think we'll know it's time to buy

They can term it what they want' "offers over" "offers in excess" etc. Doesn't matter. The single seller survey had obliterated that market game, just as the government attended.

"offers around" is a very common offer nowadays.

geneer

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

You can get longer fixes. Do a search.

Just a quick one, but here shows 5 year fixes from 4.29%
http://moneyfacts.co.uk/compare/mortgages/fixed-5-year/

they even have a 10 year fix from 5.49%

Here also shows 5 year fixes from 4.29%
http://www.money.co.uk/mortgages/fixed-rate-mortgages.htm




A fix at 4.5% - 5.5%, many would see as historically quite low

With typical deposit requirements being 25 to 15%.

You forgot to mention.

edinburgher

They can term it what they want' "offers over" "offers in excess" etc. Doesn't matter. The single seller survey had obliterated that market game, just as the government attended.

Can you explain that one for me? I maintain a casual interest in house prices because I would like to buy one one day, but don't know much on surveys/reports etc. as I've never bought or sold a house!

Percy1983

Got to admit I am not looking too much at mortgages for the minute as I don't have a deposit together, realistically we want to get a mortgage at 10% deposit but can see it may be better to wait a bit longer for 15% deposit, but we won't wait any longer than that as we don't want to keep our lives on hold any longer.

edinburgher

we won't wait any longer than that as we don't want to keep our lives on hold any longer.

I've always argued that that phrase is a bit strong - I only think of it as 'certain areas of our lives'. For example, it will be nice to be able to have space for a hobby, to raise children and to have a pet without asking permission. Mostly 'nice to haves' as opposed to basic requisites of life.

Still, it's different for everyone and (fingers x'ed), our current landlord is essentially invisible, so not feeling particularly opressed by renting at the minute