Transaction levels continue to plummet

geneer

VIs spinning data in a spurious manner.
A proportion of public choosing to lap it up rather than give it some consideration.
Well I never.
http://www.planetpropertyblog.co.uk/2011/10/14/transaction-levels-continue-to-plummet/

Sales in the housing market continue to plummet according to research from the Halifax

The bank may want us to focus on their interpretation of the data – that northern towns are seeing the biggest increase in sales – but the really telling figures here show just how little activity there is in the market
In England and Wales in the first six months of 2011 sales were down 49% compared with the same period in 2001 (271,113 v 532,709) and fell by 9% between 2010 and 2011 (296,919 v 271,113).
Now it is true that some northern towns have seen a pick up in sales over the last year: Bury, for example, increased from 398 to 572 (+44%).
But this, as even the Halifax admits, is off a very low base. More to the point, while some towns have seen a minor increase, there isn’t a single region in England and Wales that can point to higher transaction levels over the past year.
This, of course, is at least in part down to the squeeze on lending, so it’s surely a tad disingenuous of Halifax’s housing economist to comment:
“The relatively favourable levels of affordability in many of the top performing northern towns have helped to support housing market activity in these locations, albeit from historically low levels.”

reweird

Good. Sales are plummeting because people are deciding not to just give their houses away. They'll simply take them off the market and let them out whilst waiting for the market to improve so they can get the price they richly deserve.

wotsthat

It's obvious isn't it. Sellers won't sell their houses for the price that the potential buyers think is appropriate unless they are distressed in some way.

I'm trying to buy a second home and am having offers declined. The vendors might be deluded but they're having none of it.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

wotsthat wrote: »

I'm trying to buy a second home and am having offers declined. The vendors might be deluded but they're having none of it.

I've been trying to buy a BTL for the last few months. Keep getting outbid by owner occupiers. I'm offering 5% or so below 2007 prices. They're selling for 5% or so above.

Damn those deluded vendors and their deluded buyers.:cool:

Rinoa

geneer wrote: »

VIs spinning data in a spurious manner.
A proportion of public choosing to lap it up rather than give it some consideration.
Well I never.
http://www.planetpropertyblog.co.uk/2011/10/14/transaction-levels-continue-to-plummet/

Those stats are only up to Q2 2011.

Transactions have jumped significanly since, 10% up last month alone.

Transactions are therefore not continuing to fall. Indeed they are now continuing to rise.

crash123

Rinoa wrote: »

Those stats are only up to Q2 2011.

Transactions have jumped significanly since, 10% up last month alone.

Transactions are therefore not continuing to fall. Indeed they are now continuing to rise.

maybe this rise is up North where most houses are cheaper but not Scotland where all that oil money is

geneer

So two posts telling us how a stalled marked is a good thing for those who want to sell their houses.
Two posts telling us that they want to buy houses (erm ok).
One poster choosing to focus on the meaningless hyberbolic spin of short term trends.
And one poster saying...i'm not sure what.

This article appears to have been well received.

Pimperne1

geneer wrote: »

So two posts telling us how a stalled marked is a good thing for those who want to sell their houses.
Two posts telling us that they want to buy houses (erm ok).
One poster choosing to focus on the meaningless hyberbolic spin of short term trends.
And one poster saying...i'm not sure what.

This article appears to have been well received.

Like most of the articles you scrape up then.

geneer

Pimperne1 wrote: »

Like most of the articles you scrape up then.

Indeed. It appears as if some have little recourse than to respond to specific arguments in an indirect and facetious manner.

One can only assume they feel strongly enough about the content of the OPs to respond, but are ill equipped to make an effective rebuttal.

RenovationMan

I remember reading on here that the Halifax's customer base is predominantly in the North while the Nationwide is predominantly in the south? If this is the case then surely it's not surprising to see a focus on the increases in northern towns?

Why is this blog comparing prices to the peak in 2007, almost 5 years ago? What relevence does this have? Surely it's better to compare to last year and perhaps the year before to see if there is a trend within the recession?

Graham_Devon

RenovationMan wrote: »

Why is this blog comparing prices to the peak in 2007, almost 5 years ago? What relevence does this have? Surely it's better to compare to last year and perhaps the year before to see if there is a trend within the recession?

Hamish says no. You have to compare everything to peak 2007.