Will prices go up or down?

Crashy_Time

lisyloo said:

The most important thing to learn I think is that no one knows.
if we get a vaccine in spring that’s rolled out by summer then we could be back to normal-ish in 12 months however some things will have changed, for example some people will be now working from home forever (or at least not commuting regularly). This will have a big hit on cities but make other places more desiresble.
We may not get a vaccine or may be living with new viruses forever.
my expectation and hope would be normal-ish in 12 months but with some accelerated structural changes such as more WFH, fewer offices, possibly lower immigration, more online shopping hence fewer shops and shopping centres.
but of course I may be biased (like the prime minister) by needing to have a level of hope in order to be able to function :-)

the housing market functions at a very local level. For example if you live somewhere that rich people from London retire to, then that is still likely to continue. There are plenty of older people who are a long way along the road to having made their lifetimes wealth, so older people are not reliant on todays economy - its already in the bank. So places that are nice to retire will do better than places that rely on booming business e.g. the city.

so my answer is no-one knows and it depends where you live.

Truly wealthy will be affected by today`s economy (stock markets) those with money in bank accounts have been made poorer for years so that the bubble could be protected, and many could be reasonably wealthy, if they could only find some young person to borrow 20 times their income to take the big house off them.....Damn....that isn`t working so well any more! Those three examples mean that all these older groups are likely spending much less than they used to (and let`s face it they didn`t spend wildly anyway?) IMO reality is that when the tide goes out all boats go down, including property, and including "special" and "good" areas/postcodes. IMO sensibly priced flats/houses that nurses/care-workers/firemen/medics/teachers etc. can buy easily will do better than property with land that relies on bubble extraction money from elsewhere for it`s "value".