Lessons in House buying from Housepricecrash

lord_tyrannus

lawlie wrote: »

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.

I'd get out of the city and commute in, I'm having to move out to andover and sit on the train for an hour. but you find must people tend to live on the big towns on the main commuter lines

AndyGuil

lord_tyrannus wrote: »

I'd get out of the city and commute in, I'm having to move out to andover and sit on the train for an hour. but you find must people tend to live on the big towns on the main commuter lines

It is a balance. Cheaper property further out, more expensive travel, longer travel and good house value increases. More expensive propery closer, cheaper travel, quicker travel and best house value increases. There are other factors such as where do you feel happiest to live? Do you want be able to pop into London? Do you want to have an improved social experience in London? Plus, many more that are different for everyone.

Aberdeenangarse

Whilst the rest of us have been getting on with our lives and paying off our Mortgages, the deranged posters on their forum have been complaining about how unfair life is!

They celebrate the 10th anniversary of the site today.what a bunch of losers :rotfl:

ItsyBitsySpider

Aberdeenangarse wrote: »

Whilst the rest of us have been getting on with our lives and paying off our Mortgages, the deranged posters on their forum have been complaining about how unfair life is!

They celebrate the 10th anniversary of the site today.what a bunch of losers :rotfl:

Unfortunately, life is not the same rosy for everyone in the UK as it is for most of us here. I was one of those who benefited from housepricecrash in spring of 2008 and made a decision not to buy in north west England where prices fell down to 30%-40%. I know people who did not pay heed to the forecasts on that website and ended up with properties in severely negative equity.

Like almost everything, the information on that website if used wisely to make an informed decision, could be very useful.

Having said that, I really liked an early post on the thread which says

"This isn't a "pile into houses as soon as you can" or a "wait for the crash" approach, simply "buy when you're in a position to own and can afford to".
"

Ivana_Tinkle

I saved like mad for a deposit and bought my first flat (in London) in 2001. I still remember a work colleague who was jealous smugly telling me how much I'd regret it when prices crashed. He ended up emigrating!

Aberdeenangarse

These are Jonathan (dopey) Davis predictions on House prices from 2009. The guy is the unofficial spokesman for Housepricecrash.

mayonnaise wrote: »

That's a pity. That guy was comedy gold
BBC Article dated 08/2009:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8224453.stm

If I buy now, am I buying at the bottom of the market?

JD: No. When the government stimulus ends there will be nothing holding up the market. Prices will fall 20-30% from here to 2011/12.

Is it a good time to become a buy-to-let investor?

JD: No. Rents and capital values are in a falling trend, buy-to-let mortgages are practically non-existent and, by comparison, you can get 3-4% problem-free returns just by having money on deposit in a building society account

Can I get a mortgage now?

JD: Of course. But if house prices fall again, as we believe they will, why would you?
Consider what you could rent during the next couple of years - you might be surprised by the value available.

Will mortgage costs remain low for some time?

JD: No. They are already rising even though the Bank of England rate has stayed static for months. This is because of global markets.
They will continue to rise for years.

:rotfl:

And he calls his outfit "Jonathan David Wealth Management"

Classic!

jabba42

There is no doubt when that site started out house prices should have crashed as they did in the early 90's. So during normal economic cycles there should have been a purge of the greed.
What they did not know is that governments and banks had new tools to keep the housing stock inflated. So basically many there were correct in their assumptions but basically got screwed over by the powers that be.

So I think as home owners we can be smug and laugh but I also feel a bit sorry because UK housing is pretty horrendously overpriced and in reality the new generations are getting shafted.

Old_Git

the real house price crash came in Northern Ireland .Prices doubled between 2005 and 2007 .Houses sold for £30,000 OVER the asking price .
Today they are at 2003 levels and still falling.I know off one house that sold for £190,000 now its a repo and up for sale for £72,950.