Are spring and summer a good period for house searching?

LostBuyer

I am a first-time buyer and starting to look around in Welwyn Garden City area (one more London commuter moving out).

I have noticed there are few properties around 300K coming into the market since last month.

Usually, do more properties come into the market during spring and summer? Are these a good time of the year to search for properties?

Where would you look for a 3 bed house on that budget, considering a commute to London and school for a 5 year old?

I know there are loads of sites for home search, but as I am not a UK national, I don't know much outside London and most cities/towns are just names on a map.

Any thoughts are welcome!

Cheers!

Fizzymartini

Hello,

Regarding the time-of-year question, the general perception seems to be that Spring and Autumn are when most properties come to market. Summer's not thought to be good because people go on holiday (or have to entertain their kids during their school break!), and selling in Winter is actively discouraged.

I just saw this graph online today and thought it might be interesting to you, so I hunted it down! It represents the general level of offers versus asking price in an annual market cycle (obv not counting the plethora of other factors that cause prices to vary). How accurate it is, I have no idea, but it might give you some food for thought...


Sorry I can't help with the other part of your question... I'm a Londoner, looking to purchase in London

Kaz2904

I used to live on Handside lane. It's an easy walk to the station, you're near to a primary school (I forget the name as I was a teenager), the kids all walk to Stanborough school at the other end of the lane. You are walking distance to the woods, you are close to the lakes so if you get snow you can go sledging. You don't need to drive if you run out of shopping as you can whip down to the town centre for food etc etc.
Lovely large gardens. Absolutely naff all to do for kids IIRC. Hope this helps. Try the AL8 area.

agrinnall

sindy1988 wrote: »

I think the information you guys have showed here is quite useful for those who want get some suggestion about renting houses.

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Stay hungry,stay foolish

No it isn't, it's specifically about buying and selling, therefore I think your post is most likely to be :spam:

The_Earl_of_Streatham

The graph above is one of those infographics that has all the appearance of conveying information but actually is completely bereft of substance.

Without some sort of numbers for the vertical axis it's meaningless. Are we looking at a range of two pounds, two hundred pound, rwo thousand pounds? The lines start near the origin in spring, is the origin zero, are houses almost free in spring? Given the false origin, does the graph apply to houses costing tens of thousands as well as those costing hundreds of thousands? How are the lines smooth when the horizontal axis only has four points?

The annotations are no more than idle speculation. The data to make such a graph, a real graph with actual values, are available but would take some time and effort to collate. The result would be an aggregate that may not apply to any individual case.

This isn't a dig at you Fizzymartini, you posted the graph in good faith and saddled up my hobbyhorse for me (and I'm always appreciative of that). I'm just indulging my irritation at so much stuff that has the appearance of information but actually isn't. The real test of information is, does it reduce uncertainty? That graph is an example of something that doesn't pass the test.

R_P_W

I think the best time to look for a property is when you need somewhere to live! If you don't like any then don't buy one.

olly300

A few people I know with school aged children actually accepted an offer and had offers accepted in winter.

However they aren't moving until the end of the school year.

In theory the sale could fall through by then but as in England and Wales the property isn't yours until you have exchanged contracts it makes no difference.

Fizzymartini

The_Earl_of_Streatham wrote: »

The graph above is one of those infographics that has all the appearance of conveying information but actually is completely bereft of substance.

Without some sort of numbers for the vertical axis it's meaningless. Are we looking at a range of two pounds, two hundred pound, rwo thousand pounds? The lines start near the origin in spring, is the origin zero, are houses almost free in spring? Given the false origin, does the graph apply to houses costing tens of thousands as well as those costing hundreds of thousands? How are the lines smooth when the horizontal axis only has four points?

The annotations are no more than idle speculation. The data to make such a graph, a real graph with actual values, are available but would take some time and effort to collate. The result would be an aggregate that may not apply to any individual case.

This isn't a dig at you Fizzymartini, you posted the graph in good faith and saddled up my hobbyhorse for me (and I'm always appreciative of that). I'm just indulging my irritation at so much stuff that has the appearance of information but actually isn't. The real test of information is, does it reduce uncertainty? That graph is an example of something that doesn't pass the test.

No offence taken, Earl of S! I obviously didn't create the graph in question, but I suppose that it's intended merely as a basic illustration, rather than any kind of concrete data. Useful to get broad generalisations in your head, but really, with something as unpredictable as the property market, that was all I needed: just a really rough idea. As R P W rightly said, the best time to look for a property is when you need somewhere to live