Lessons in House buying from Housepricecrash

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ging84 wrote: »

are you trying to say you were still better of than renting because you didn't spend the £43k? because what about the interest you paid on your mortgage, or the returns you would have got saving or investing your money if you paid cash

Most people in most areas would be.

I'm around £100,000 better off thanks to buying in 2007 rather than renting the same house since, including mortgage interest, repairs, insurance, lost interest, etc.

Deferring purchase to try and time the market would have been financially disastrous for me, and is for most people.

The best advice by far is now, and has always been, buy as early as you can in life and pay as little rent as possible.

Turnbull2000

That place has become an absolute parody. Contrary but entirely rational views are dismissed as an act of trolling, or you're labelled a mortgage broker with vested interests. Basically, any opposing view results in a ban. They're nutters.

There's even a Facebook page set up for HPCers who now consider the site too "Stalinesque"!

Mobeer

In the long term the UK population is going up, the number of households is going up faster than the population and housebuilding remains low. Those conditions will send house prices up over long periods, even if other factors send prices up and down over shorter periods.

MaxTheCat

They don't post your comments on HPC if you deviate from the mantra. It's basically a website that caters for people that like to argue around the same idea fair play to them they have a dedicated bunch of followers. If anyone thinks prices can't go much hire here take a look at Australian house prices they make London look cheap and they are still going up. There are many things the government can do to keep prices high and help to buy is just one of them. Of course most of my mates in Australia are now unemployed because they can't compete with salaries in the UK or US let alone India or china so the word of caution is that eventually you end up unemployed with your job being offshored so it's really not all good news.

bitsandpieces

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Most people in most areas would be.

I'm around £100,000 better off thanks to buying in 2007 rather than renting the same house since, including mortgage interest, repairs, insurance, lost interest, etc.

This is quite area-dependent, though. I last moved house slightly after you bought - from shared ownership to rented - and have ended up significantly better off than I would have been if I bought: prices have averaged out as pretty much flat here over the past 5 years, my rent is less than a mortgage would be (not to mention property maintenance costs) and I've made some money from savings/investments using the deposit. I've also been able to save a bigger deposit due to lower monthly costs.

I'd like to claim that I brilliantly predicted the market It was more that I was moving for a job and wasn't sure how long I'd be here, though, so didn't want to commit to buying a place. Hopefully I'll be in a position to buy soon.

Worth mentioning that this 'time in the market rather than timing the market' thing is only plausible with medium/long term investments. If you're having to buy and sell often then timing is pretty important - you can gain or lose a lot by your timing in coming into the market, and the costs of buying/selling properties means that if you move too often you'll lose money with each move unless prices have gone up significantly. On the other extreme, if you know you can stay in the same property for long enough to pay off the mortgage, you'll definitely have +1 house at the end of it!

Turnbull2000

If you'd bought in London a mere 5 weeks ago, you'd have made £50,000 already.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Indeed.

London asking prices up 10% in a month......

Absolutely Spectacular.

Of course it won't all translate into sold prices.

andybenw

Just to add to the time in the market thing. For most(remember we're not all mse'rs.) this is exceedingly important, especially if like most you buy over the full term of a 25 year mortgage. That time in the market needs to start 25 years before retirement. So if you want to retire at say 65 not to have bought prior to 40 is to take a huge gamble on prices not spiralling away from you. The HPC gamble is not actually appropriate for the vast majority of people who frewuent that site. Most seem to be in a position where they could buy. They are gambling against sentiment for high prices. Government will always pander to this in order to help them get re-elected. So its not even a strict economic gamble. I say buy early as you can, pay off as early as you can and live rent/mortgage free as early as you can.

lord_tyrannus

the people on there are totally off the reservation if you deviate from there view that house price Armageddon is about to strike and anyone who considers buying at the moment is a total fool who they need to educate by trolling them

it's a shame really because it's a topic that needs sensible debate

My own 2 pence on the situation


I've heard people saying that house prices will crash as far back as 2003 while there has been an adjustment in some area's like northern Ireland & wales and parts of the north the south seems stagnant sort of like house price macro economies.

While help to buy seems largely lambasted by the press I did read an article which said that journalists are looking at help to buy with an eye on London but really it will help people most who are outside of London or who want to escape the astronomical London property prices.

As for london prices. Either people will view them as a safe heaven or there is a warren buffet quote that springs to mind "be greedy when others are weary and be weary when others are greedy"
Judging by fact that they are now selling studio flats in lots road Fulham which is a totally dive area for 500k then what does that say for london prices?

lawlie

Prices in London are absolutely ridiculous. I AM being weary (unfortunately, against the advice of the original OP!) as I am looking to be in a position to buy in the first 2Qs of next year. No doubt, prices will be astronomical (as they are already are, but even more so) by then as the HTB funding will mean more competition, bidding wars etc.

Estate agents are hiking up asking prices, and unfortunately, I would say that the hysteria of getting onto the London property ladder is so much so that people are willing to pay whatever they are asked to pay. I remember even looking 6 months ago, at a couple of properties where the asking prices were nearly £100k more than a similar property on the same road sold less than a year ago.

It is a wonder to me where people who actually work in London live. A rightmove search from a drawn area from Hampstead sweeping down to Pimlico, taking in the edges of Kilburn etc. (granted, most of the search are very nice areas), for a 2 bedrooms or less flat (i.e. inc. studios!) below £450k resulted in 5 properties in the last 24 hours. When you lift the £450k price restriction there were 67. Completely ridiculous.

My fear is I'll buy and it will crash, but hey, I'm looking for a home so it'll hurt less than if I were hoping to sell on soon I suppose.