What is the house market doing at the moment?

dougk_2

4 bed houses are not shifting readily - its mainly 1 and 2 beds that people are after at the moment - cost maybe?
or maybe more people are downsizing to cash in in case there is a price drop?
I think people also look - see a house has been advertised for several months and skip it, thinking there is a problem with it!
When I was searching right move I only ever checked the houses added in last 2 weeks, partly because there were so many choices!

Pal

sarahllord wrote:

... and all the people who really want to buy have already bought and everyone else is waiting to see what happens with the election.

I don't believe that the election has any bearing at all on house sales. Certainly people are not waiting until after May 5th. What difference is that going to make? It does however sound like the sort of excuse the estate agents use to avoid frightening potential customers who are receiving no interest in their own properties!

IMHO the only reason 1 and 2 bed places are shifting and larger properties are not is because they are all that FTB's can afford and they are the only properties where a BTL investor still stands a chance of covering an interest only mortgage with the rent they receive. Larger houses cannot command enough rent to cover the mortgage costs.

rchddap1

Think about this Pal. If 1 & 2 beds are selling well, then surely the people that were the previous owners of the house have to go somewhere? Unless they are all getting killed off of course. Therefore, if enough FTBs are in the market then the people that they displace from these homes must go to the market and re-purchase another house...possibly a bigger house?

Spendless

rchddap1 wrote:

Think about this Pal. If 1 & 2 beds are selling well, then surely the people that were the previous owners of the house have to go somewhere? Unless they are all getting killed off of course. Therefore, if enough FTBs are in the market then the people that they displace from these homes must go to the market and re-purchase another house...possibly a bigger house?

That's the point I mentioned earlier. The next step from a large 2/3 bed MTH to a bigger 3 bed semi is now about £50,000. A few years ago you were talking about £20,000 to the next step. That's why we have got a slow market in the middle here.

bazzab

Think yourselves lucky! We've had 3 viewings in the last 7 months!!!

Estate agent is now getting changed after being adviesed that they'd had our price too high.

We started at £122,000 last september and now have been told not to expect anything much past £110,000!!!

Quite a drop

deemy2004

All the more reason to price what the market will bare, if you don't get vewings in the first couple of weeks, cut the price, keep cutting until you get viewings otherwise 6 months down the road, you will be forced to cut the price but still with no viewings. !

catkins

I think some people could be waiting until the election to see what happens to interest rates. According to the Daily Mail yesterday the Bank of England have put off any decision on this until just after the election (or may be the actual day - not sure). I think most people are convinced the rate is going to go up and then probably continue to increase as inflation is getting too high

paulherts

Hitchin here.

It is a bit hit and miss. Some properties sticking, house across the road overpriced (or appeared to be) sold within a week.

Estate agent friend advises that properties in this area could be 10% lower this time next year, but he is only guessing like the rest of us! His turnover is down a lot on this time last year.

Cheers Paul

reformedspender

Here's the view from north Oxfordshire....

IMHO there seems to be a two-tier market. We've been looking for ages and keep seeing the same properties week in week out. However, there are some that come onto the market and off again within days - I reckon it is down to whether things are priced realistically. We put an offer in on Monday on a three-bed detached property in quite a nice village that came on the market on Friday, but were beaten to it. Our offer was 93 per cent of the asking price, but the agent said the offer accepted was 'significantly' above that. We were probably foolish to put in such a low-ish offer as the house was realistically priced.

dougk_2

I think the reason is people are being very selective. When I was looking areas that were a little "tatty" or "rough" I avoided like the plague, even if theywere a bit cheaper.

If there were several houses near to ach other for sale I avoided these too as I though why is everyone moving!