Rising house prices used to be considered good news. Not anymore.

Graham_Devon

The Guardian, alongside ICM have run a poll.

It's now no longer just the younger generation suggesting house price increases are not always a good thing. But also the middle aged, who have seen their next rung up the ladder move so far away from them, they are unable to move.

It's time to change the language of house prices. For decades, media reports have casually talked of householders "enjoying" price rises, of "hotspots" where the market is "performing strongly". On the rare occasions prices fall, they are "depressed" or "subdued". But a new poll confirms it's not just a generation of priced-out Londoners who are rebelling: anger about an overheated market has spread across the country. No, the poll is saying, we don't "enjoy" ludicrous rises in house prices. Enough is enough.


This is an extraordinary turnaround, and a puzzle for economists steeped in conventional theories. In every other period of economic recovery, rising consumer confidence and rising house prices have gone hand in hand, creating a feelgood factor crucial for politicians seeking re-election. This time around, rising house prices are producing the opposite: a feel-bad factor among young adults permanently excluded from buying and furious about rapacious rents, combined with a growing sense of despair among the middle-aged no longer able to move up the fabled property ladder because each rung is financially just too far away from the one before. Add to that the many households with jumbo-sized mortgages who fear a return to "normal" interest rates, and you have a potent extra ingredient to the "cost of living crisis".

The article ends...."Maybe one day, we'll see newspapers reporting "good news, house prices are falling".

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/12/rising-house-prices-not-good-homeowners

And the poll article, showing 63% of respondents would like house prices to stabalise, 20% would like them to drop and only 14% say they want them to rise.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/12/affordability-biggest-housing-concern-poll-high-rents

wotsthat

And the poll article, showing 63% of respondents would like house prices to stabalise, 20% would like them to drop and only 14% say they want them to rise.

...and 100% of them when they sell try to maximise the price they can achieve.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

wotsthat wrote: »

...and 100% of them when they sell try to maximise the price they can achieve.

Tee hee.....

So 77% of people want house prices to stay at their current high levels or get higher.

Just 20% want them to fall.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for lower prices, is it?

the_flying_pig

wotsthat wrote: »

...and 100% of them when they sell try to maximise the price they can achieve.

was that intended to represent an in-some-way insightful contribution?

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

...and 100% of them when they sell try to maximise the price they can achieve.

Right....and?

That's half the point of the article. They will need to in order to afford the next step.

You often fall back to the personal level when it comes to people wanting price falls. I don't know why you expect people to sell lower than the market value at the time, in order to "stand up" for their point.

Selling your house lower than value is going to make no difference to the market, so I don't know why you hold on to this, somewhat vague and irrelevant point.

ukcarper

I think there is a big difference between people not wanting prices to rise and people wanting prices to fall.


I wouldn't see a period when prices stay the same as bad but I would if they fell significantly.

ladeeda

I read it that 63% of people wanted the prices to stabilize as that is what the survey said. A lot of people are fed up with the obsessional constant chatter that surrounds house prices (I am not one of them) but they seem to me, to be a growing breed.

Nikkster

I'd be interested to understand more about the demographic polled.

E.g. If it was 100% non-home owners, the fact that 67% wanted prices to 'stabilise' and 20% wanted them to fall makes the interpretation different to if it was 100% homewoners (I'm sure it was a mix, but I was taking the extremes to illustrate my point.

Whilst typing that I also wondered what 'stabilising' includes? Increases up to CPI/RPI? Increases up to wage inflation? No increases at all?

I expect this was quite a personal thing (unless the definition was supplied with the poll).

chucky

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Just 20% want them to fall.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for lower prices, is it?

They're a minority. The 20% are probably non home owners anyway.

It looks like the person that started the thread was trying to scaremonger yet again.

chucknorris

chucky wrote: »

They're a minority. The 20% are probably non home owners anyway.

It looks like the person that started the thread was trying to scaremonger yet again.

Welcome back chucky

ruggedtoast

I want the price of other peoples' houses to fall. Not so much my own.