Buy the house now? Or wait?

srj_x

I have had an offer accepted on a house I like, completed a more in depth survey and am just about to pay my solicitors fees.. my question is with everything going on currently (corona) do I wait? Will house prices plummet? Or do I take advantage of the lower interest rates? 

graphs

Rock bottom interest rates AND lower house prices are months away.
You would be a fool to buy now.

Darkslider

I've exchanged contracts and am completing next week. I'm a bit gutted, I've accepted a higher interest rate mortgage than I might have been able to get in a few weeks time, and nobody knows what's going to happen with house prices but I'd assume they're going to stagnate at best, or drop at worst! In hindsight I'd have waited until the summer to buy.

Luckily we're buying a home for the next 5+ years, not a quick short term investment. I'll be trying hard to remind myself of that fact should house prices plummet. 

amandacat

I don’t think anyone knows what will happen. 
Very few people will want to sell in the coming weeks so there will be less houses for sale. I was due to put my house on the market and I won’t be now until this is all over. If mortgage rates drop then houses become more affordable so people may stretch themselves more. Also it might be that while interest rates are low, the downturn will result in  less money being available for lending so mortgages become harder to obtain without a larger deposit. 
On the other hand with more people unemployed there may be less demand but it depends how long this lasts for and whether things bounce back quickly after. 

anonymous12124

amandacat said:

I don’t think anyone knows what will happen.

Very few people will want to sell in the coming weeks so there will be less houses for sale.

On the other hand with more people unemployed there may be less demand but it depends how long this lasts for and whether things bounce back quickly after. 

It's common sense, we're in a recession that could have turned into a depression. Most governments including ours are throwing money into the system and tons of it to keep the economy from total collapse. That in turn brings in hyperinflation.

Interest rates could go even lower and the value of houses because of the hyperinflation of good is almost certain to go down as well.

Basically you'd be crazy to buy a house right now and not wait a few weeks at least.

People won't be selling their houses? Rubbish. People won't want to buy but peple will want to sell because prices will come down, it's inevitable.