Did I just miss out on a bargain or dodge a bullet?

Sarah1Mitty2

Malthusian said:

jimbog said:

This is true.

It reminds me of the time I realised I could save £5 a day by walking to work rather than taking a bus. I was feeling pleased with myself until the day a colleague shrugged and said I would have saved four times that amount if I had been taking a taxi

I would have spent £150 to hire a limo to take me into work, then carried on walking to work the next day. Saving £150 per day would pay for the cost of the limo within a single day.

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

Getting a house 50k cheaper is a slightly different thing though.

You are ignoring that the potential downside of messing sellers around - that you lose out on the ideal house - is much much higher than saving money on a commute, just as the potential gain is. You can't justify a gamble on the grounds that the upside is thousands of pounds and ignore the potential downside. 
The cost of losing out on the "ideal house" and having to settle for "whichever house is being sold by someone desperate enough to put up with my messing around" is intangible. For some people it could even be nil, if they are fixer-uppers or property speculators. But given the difference between what people are willing to pay for a house in a desirable area and what people are willing to pay for fixer-uppers, it could easily be hundreds of thousands of pounds.
As others have adequately covered, there is no "£50,000 cheaper", the saving you're talking about doesn't exist. The market value of the house is £520,000 (as far as anyone knows) and there is no reason to believe that an offer of 9% below market value would be accepted.

Two reasons would be no other offers and very keen to sell. There are many other reasons as well, it all depends on circumstances. "Market value" is what it eventually sells for, not what someone thinks or hopes it is worth.

newsgroupmonkey_

So this is a difficult one because clearly there are a lot of people "Debating house prices in general" and that's against the rules.
I suggest, however, as we're talking about a particular property, having a look at the average house prices.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/average-house-prices

November was not the height at all. The interest rates had already started to kick in and it was getting near the height of mortgage rates! They've clearly dropped the price because a) they've realised that it was probably a bit overpriced and b) they've probably found somewhere they want to buy.

Average prices are now higher than they were in November. Note: That's HBOS. Nationwide is a bit more difficult to navigate - they're often a month behind. However, even they talk about less than 1% difference between March and last November.

Now, thing is, if the property that they want to buy has now fallen through (after all, it's 6 months later), they're probably happy to hold out until they've got a better offer now.

Regional differences also make interesting reading. Prices in the E&W Midlands and South West are still increasing year-on-year.
https://www.nationwidehousepriceindex.co.uk/charts/