Buy now or wait??

ledddy

I have a house to sell and will have a substantial deposit to buy a new home. Although it is not imperative that I have my own home, Im being advised to 'jump on the band wagon' of increasing house prices. Other advisors are urging me to wait for prices to fall as I dont 'need' a home and will be in a better position to buy a house as I will have funds.

Buying property will always be a gamble, but with so many different opinions its hard to weigh up all the options!

Any advice would be great!

doitmyself

There isn't advice on this subject, it's all opinions. From what you say though you are already a homeowner???

Tiger_greeneyes

It depends on whether you are looking for an investment or a home.

Waiting for prices to fall is a bit of a gamble. Who says they're going to fall? They may not! You might hang on until you find yourself priced out of the market.

On the flip side, if you buy somewhere now, the prices may fall and you'll be left with the property being worth less than you paid for it.

Personally, I'd stay on the property ladder. Whatever happens, you can always ride it out.

In the short to medium term, prices fluctuate. In the long term, the property will always gain in value.

pricedout_1

there seems to be so many market drivers (supply & demand, BTL etc) that it seems fairly safe to buy as there doesn't seem to be much chance of a price fall. However, personally I'm waiting too see how far up interest rates go before they start going down again. The BOE has to keep raising interest rates untill inflation is under control again and the signs are that it is not working so keep raising interest rates.

Also, America is currently undergoing a correction which only started last year. This could also have repercussions for the UK. (Whatever happens there seems to happen here too.)

In the meantime I can keep building a larger deposit to kill off any large interest payment when I do eventually decide to take the plunge!

Tiger_greeneyes

One thing you might like to consider is a long-term fixed rate mortgage. You can get 10, 15 and 25 year mortgages now - at particularly good rates. There's a thread on the go at the moment - 10 year fixed rate at 5.05%.

You really can't argue with a deal like that!