FTB House Prices +3%, FTB Sales +12%

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

The number of house purchases by first-time buyers rose 12% this year

The average age of first-time buyers is now 30, up from 29 a year ago, and a 20% deposit is typically required.

A 10% deposit was typical in 2007.

The average deposit needed by first-time buyers in the UK in 2012 was £27,984, with the house price averaging £139,921 - up 3% on a year before.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20862745

FTB house prices rising in real terms, not just nominal.

:beer::beer::beer:

Mr._Pricklepants

So much good news today....I'm getting all emotional.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Yep.

Certainly is a good news week.

FTB house prices are rising at 3% a year, which is of course more than inflation and a gain in real terms.

Fella

In 2006, there were 402,800 first-time buyers.

FTBers rose 12% this year to 216,000. Barely half what they were in 2006.

It would take another 6 years of 12% increases each & every year. If that happened, by 2019 we'd have got back to the same amount of FTBers as in 2006.

And this is a GOOD news week for the housing market?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Fella wrote: »

In 2006, there were 402,800 first-time buyers. FTBers rose 12% this year to 216,000. Barely half what they were in 2006.

It would take another 6 years of 12% increases each & every year. If that happened, by 2019 we'd have got back to the same amount of FTBers as in 2006.

Yes, well done for pointing out that falling house prices and mortgage rationing have resulted in significantly fewer FTB-s buying houses.

And this is a GOOD news week for the housing market?

Sure is.

FTB house prices rose 3% with just a few thousand extra buyers.

Imagine how much they'll soar when something resembling normal lending returns.

Mallotum_X

So the average first time buyer spends more on the first property and this is celebrated?

What a pointless thing to be celebrating. Perhaps you should think why this may be the case when average house prices are stable/down a bit.

Maybe the make up of a FTB has continued to change? and that many less well off FTB who would have bought slightly cheaper properties are not buying. Remove them and the average goes up a bit. Even if slightly more are buying at the higher end. Plenty of other reasons that may be behind it. Without comparing the typical FTB house against a benchmark the figure means nothing.

Clearly overall they are having no real impact on the housing market, or we would see average prices up everywhere.

Fella

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

FTB house prices rose 3% with just a few thousand extra buyers.

Imagine how much they'll soar when something resembling normal lending returns.

My medium-long term view of the UK housing market hasn't changed much for quite awhile. Actual house prices to go nowhere special in any direction for another 10 years or so is my bet. (with real values slowly falling each year due to inflation). News stories like these are non-stories, minor increases or decreases in numbers are essentially meaningless.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Mallotum_X wrote: »

So the average first time buyer spends more on the first property and this is celebrated?
.

Of course.

This increase in lending has enabled 12% more FTB-s to purchase than last year, when prices were 3% cheaper.

Excellent news for the economy as well. As there will be no sustainable recovery in the wider economy without a sustainable recovery in house prices.

Mallotum_X

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Of course.

This increase in lending has enabled 12% more FTB-s to purchase than last year, when prices were 3% cheaper.

Excellent news for the economy as well. As there will be no sustainable recovery in the wider economy without a sustainable recovery in house prices.

You do appear to be confusing the stats.

Nothing in the article says house prices have risen. Only that the average price of houses currently being bought by FTB are higher than last year.

This may well be down to the make up of FTB changing over the period and therefore the type of house being bought having changed.

We know from the recent nationwide figures that Y-on-Y average prices were down slightly. So using your logic a 12% increase in FTB has negatively influenced the overall average house price.

I would agree, however that the lending changes probably have had an influence on assisting FTB to buy.

the_flying_pig

Mallotum_X wrote: »

You do appear to be confusing the stats.

Nothing in the article says house prices have risen. Only that the average price of houses currently being bought by FTB are higher than last year.

This may well be down to the make up of FTB changing over the period and therefore the type of house being bought having changed.

We know from the recent nationwide figures that Y-on-Y average prices were down slightly. So using your logic a 12% increase in FTB has negatively influenced the overall average house price.

I would agree, however that the lending changes probably have had an influence on assisting FTB to buy.

well, quite.

it's not as if halifax has categorised a certain set of houses [say 2 bed semis] as being 'first time buyer houses' & has noticed that such places have become 3% more expensive.

rather whilst stating that prices are flat overall [e.g. see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=57747203&postcount=13 - another ramptastic thread in which H attempts to misrepresent Halifax data] the article says that, I suppose, FTBs have tended to go for slightly more expensive places and, implicitly, that other buyers have tended to go for slightly chepaer places.

nickj_2

is the housing market really that great or are people just looking at it with rose tinted glasses http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/04/housing-costs-tenants-homeowners-payday-loans
there must be loads of people who have interest only mortgages who have no way of repaying the capital
there must be loads of people who can probably just about make ends meet now , but a 1/2% rise in interest rates wil finish them off