Looking on the positive side: Why falling house prices are a good thing

IveSeenTheLight

DervProf wrote: »

No, i`m not going to sell you my house at 3 x local salary. And I`m not going to buy one of yours either.

Why not?
It takes people to actually sell at lower prices to reduce house prices.
If you firmly believe that house prices should be 3 x local salaries, then why not help out be selling at that price.

I'm sure you will have plenty of offers

DervProf

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Why not?
It takes people to actually sell at lower prices to reduce house prices.
If you firmly believe that house prices should be 3 x local salaries, then why not help out be selling at that price.

I'm sure you will have plenty of offers

I`m sure I would.

If I were going to sell, I`d rather have a valuation done by an "expert". Whatever that expert suggested, I`d settle for as the marketing valuation. Should I get an offer near that valuation, I would then sell. I would then find a suitable property and put in a resoanable offer. Given the current economic climate, I would expect to sell at slightly a slightly lower price than the valuation, and expect to be able to buy at slightly lower than the asking price. Rinse and repeat, no one gets hurt.

IveSeenTheLight

DervProf wrote: »

I`m sure I would.

If I were going to sell, I`d rather have a valuation done by an "expert". Whatever that expert suggested, I`d settle for as the marketing valuation. Should I get an offer near that valuation, I would then sell. I would then find a suitable property and put in a resoanable offer. Given the current economic climate, I would expect to sell at slightly a slightly lower price than the valuation, and expect to be able to buy at slightly lower than the asking price. Rinse and repeat, no one gets hurt.

Very simplistic, but as you know and many say on here, some may not be able to reduce their price and simply decide not to sell.

This reduces available properties and reduces the options for buyers and potentially increases the ammount of potential buyers per property.

Potentially increasing demand which pushes prices up again.

Al in all, I've thought and believe we are infor a period of stagnation, some months down, some months up.

Ingsy

I want prices to drop, and I own. Bought a first place about 5 years ago, and am looking to move up to a family home. Have been doing some sums and even with a 25% deposit, the monthly payments are not realistic on a single salary (it would be nice for my wife not to have to work when we have children) along with all the other every day things that need paying for.

Surely it would be better for the economy if house prices were lower? Instead of paying £1100 a month (for example) on a mortgage, if that was, say, £700 a month, that difference could be used for things like eating out, cinema, trips away etc and the money be spread around.

But, and I'm going to be honest here, the main reason I want prices to fall is becuase it galls me to have to pay almost double for something, purely becuase I was born a few years later than someone else.

IveSeenTheLight

Ingsy wrote: »

it would be nice for my wife not to have to work when we have children

I'm sure you can achieve that.
I was in the same boat, my wife and I chose for years to be frugile and pay off as much as we could.
We practically lived on one salary and used the second salary to make the overpayments

Now we have children and the wife is not working

Make the sacrafices now for a better future for yourselves