Interested in house, but the price has DROPPED 40K in the last 10 years, how to figure out why??

ProDave

More charts here. https://propertydata.co.uk/charts/house-prices

E.g. scroll down and see how the NE of England has still not got back to 2008 levels

Splatfoot

And it shouldn't be the Radon. That's in huge areas of the country, including where I live. 

artyclarty

I would also say that house prices may have not recovered since 08. My current house I purchased for £55k 5 years ago but they paid 81k in 08! They were slumlords who had cowboyed the boiler, electrics, rendering and plumming so I have no sympathy!

I have had it valued since and its probably worth around £65-70k now.

nannyto2

Splatfoot said:

And it shouldn't be the Radon. That's in huge areas of the country, including where I live. 

Are you concerned about it at all, or do you test your house for it? I'm personally not too concerned myself, just when I was searching for Somerset this is mostly what came up as it's the worst levels in the country apparently.

nannyto2

artyclarty said:

I would also say that house prices may have not recovered since 08. My current house I purchased for £55k 5 years ago but they paid 81k in 08! They were slumlords who had cowboyed the boiler, electrics, rendering and plumming so I have no sympathy!

I have had it valued since and its probably worth around £65-70k now.

Thank you, and thank you @ProDave & @AdrianC for the charts. Seems property is not as safe an investment as I previously thought. My best guess from the responses so far, and looking at the graphs, is that they purchased whilst still in the the peak at beginning of 2018, and never fully recovered from the crash, now this has combined with the COVID (which seems to have hit the area hard for job losses/business).

Searching the area, there is another similar size property nearby that has been on the market at a similar price since way back in January.

GDB2222

Some areas were severely flooded a couple of years ago?

MovingForwards

@nannyto2 are you buying a home that you are going to live in for 5+ years or a rental property as an investment?

Houses are never guaranteed to rise in price, nor is the stock market. People put their money in if they are happy to stay in the property long-term or invest, taking the highs with the lows and riding out any issues.

strawb_shortcake

Parts of Somerset are cheaper compared with the wider area, for example Weston Super Mare is a much more affordable than Bristol for people working in Bristol and easily commutable. I'm not too sure on the historical prices for Weston though?? 

nannyto2

MovingForwards said:

@nannyto2 are you buying a home that you are going to live in for 5+ years or a rental property as an investment?

Houses are never guaranteed to rise in price, nor is the stock market. People put their money in if they are happy to stay in the property long-term or invest, taking the highs with the lows and riding out any issues.

I plan to live there long term, but this will also be my life savings, and I would sell the property and downsize if I ever needed to free up money, so would rather it be in a place that also makes a sound investment too.

I also find myself thinking: If it dropped 40K due to the 2008 crash, will it drop further now with COVID going on, especially if there is a second wave in winter, and as furlough is further withdrawn. So maybe now is the worst time to buy etc. etc. I guess there are a lot of things to think about.

MovingForwards

Perhaps go for the downsize property and invest the surplus money either into your pension, stocks and shares ISA wrapper or higher fixed rate interest accounts.