SunnySideUp

Yes, I know there has been quite a correction

I'm just saying what I saw today ..... not a mad panic to buy, but a healthy interest in the properties - went on a batch viewing too!!

Last October/November I was the only one looking .... really .... not now!

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

There is a lot of interest and sold properties happening now, its not a fantastic rise but its getting better. This is based on charles church/ persimmon NE

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

We have been at the bottom for a while. I think it will start and get better towards the end of this year

nixxon

Only if you have faeries at the bottom of the garden!

FlightMan

Oh come on. We will be at the bottom when the graphs are flat for 6 months.
They still look like they've dropped off a cliff!

JTaylor

Just remind us what you do for a living, Steve.

sti-04!!

I have just sold my house for what i paid for it last year, the house is amazing but they are building across the road from me (was semi-rural) & although i thought it wouldnt bother me, it is tbh.
So factually from what i can see there isnt a problem in my eyes .....

Although i bidded 150k less on a house i am interested in & the seller seems to be swaying ...... its overpriced by 100k in my opinion anyway.

I'll wait & see if he turns if not, his loss.

Petem95

LOL!! You are either an estate agent, or just have a dry sense of humour right?

We're in for at least another 18months of falling prices, then I expect we'll drag along the bottom for a good few years. The way the current economic situation is going however, I think house prices may be the least of peoples worries if things start getting as bad as some are predicting.

dpb

Your seeing some Green shoots of recovery as well then ??

Petem95

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

The people browsing in EA's are the same people who were in Woolworths tryin to steal last minute bargains.
As this thread has shown,people have a huge interest in house prices,especially at times like this.

I think there is a way to fall yet,then a flattening out for 12 months then start to rise..

Could be a long time till we see 2007 prices again.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Thing is though they have fallen so far already that at some point those with money are going to start snapping up 'bargains'. At that point the market will flatten even though it won't be a true indiciator of the state of the economy.

Let's be honest, houses in the UK were way overpriced. I compared what my house was worth at the height and could have bought a very nice oceanside property in Perth, Western Australia for the same money. There is something wrong when an average house in the s**thole that is the UK is worth the same as a luxury property in one of the nicest places in the world.

StickyMicky

not if you are going to get stuck on an estate with 50 council spec family's around you

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

There is an urban splash development near my works..

Its a huge old cotton mill.I have to say it has been renovated beautifully,and was pitched as being luxury apartments when the devolopment started.

1 bed studio's were £129k going to £209k for 2 bed apartment.

Now £89k will buy you a studio...there still not selling so housing association has purchased a lot of them.

There was also a 2nd phase that started,but has now stopped and all the scaffolding has been taken away..

This also happened about 10yrs ago in another mill close to work,now its just a hell hole that council throw in all the down and outs and transients..

Shame

njkmrs

I think the weather has an important part to play .
If we get some nice sunshine in March/April ,then people will start feeling frisky again and more positive .
This will then lead to feel good factor and people will be more confident about their situation and start looking to move ,upsize etc ,which will lead to the Housing Market beginning to recover ,albeit it slowly ,i think .

scoobyvirgin

The house next door to mine was reposessed in October, it took the halifax a long time to send someone round to clear it out even though it had been empty since Septmember.
It went on the market at £139,950, around a 2 months later it dropped to £132,950, I had a look yesterday and it's dropped again to £127,500.
I think it will fall even more yet, just wish I'd got the money to have punt at it.

SunnySideUp

stevebt isn't an Estate Agent ........... is he??

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

I do the plastering for persimmon homes and charles church, I have been speaking to quite a few of the sales girls and its getting better. There is lots of interest to buy properties but people then find out they can't get the mortgage. I already know of the most amount of sales they have had for a long time and can see work ahead of me for quite a while whereas last year it was week by week as it was that bad

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

Lots of green shoots here

BBC NEWS | Business | UK jobless 'to reach 3.4 million'

"it said these conditions will do little to aid the housing market, set to fall 22% more over the next 18 months as it remains starved of finance for new mortgages. "

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

The thing is no one really knows where house prices are going to end up. You can quote one so called expert after another, but where were they all 12 months ago in predicting the market's collapse?

Aside from those that bought at the peak who really in the long term will lose out if houses become worth 50% less than their peak in 2008?

Other areas of the economy are far more important to be frank.

Petem95

House prices can only continue to fall sharply. Anyone who thinks otherwise has no understanding of the whole 'credit crunch'. It's basically been caused by excessive lending, and excessive lending is what has supported crazy house prices.

The lending levels will never return to what they were, but on top of that we have to factor in that we are in a very deep recession/depression - far less jobs about, and those who have jobs are at a greater risk of losing them, so are higher risk to lenders. All these immigrants (read economic migrants) who have increased demand for housing, wont stay around when there's no jobs - so less demand as well.

It's like the perfect storm has hit. I was reading today economists predict house prices to fall only 18% in 2009, and 10% in 2010, but I think this is optimistic.

Things just keep getting worse out there with the banks as well...

Global lending thaw may yet return to deep freeze | Special Coverage | Reuters

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

I bought my house in 2000 and it was just as prices started to rise sharply, there was no excessive lending then but price still rose. The credit crunch is due to americans selling mortgages to people knowing that when they finished thier promotion offer it was going to rise to an extortionate rate. As bonus's were more important to these people. Americas is responsible for crippling most of the big banks. Once they sort thier country out we will see a difference????

SunnySideUp

"NORTH Wales-based housebuilder Redrow added to the gloom over the beleaguered sector as it said home sales virtually halved in the second half of 2008.

The Flintshire-based firm said sales fell 49% to 853 homes over the period, with forward sales standing 40% lower than the previous year at the end of December.

The company has seen a 10% fall in house prices since June, dealing a bigger than expected blow to the group’s margins.

Redrow, whose head office is on St David’s business park at Ewloe, expects prices to “remain uncertain” in the coming months and warned it was difficult to predict when the market would show signs of improvement.

The firm has cut 40% of its workforce in the past year – around 500 jobs – as the current drought in mortgage financing and a deepening recession pummels the housing market.

It has also closed two offices, one of them in Preston Brook, near Warrington, and has throttled back on land purchase and construction activity.

“The level of consumer confidence and the condition of the lending markets lead us to conclude that the trading environment will continue to be extremely difficult in 2009,” Redrow said yesterday"

Maybe it's not yet bottomed out?

unclebuck

Has your 'cut and paste a random item from the internet' bottomed out yet??

I fear not.....

lozgti

I can't stand rubbish,overpriced new houses with no gardens and these 'cram 200 on a postage stamp 'builders can suffer.

Same for the ones who have blighted this country with apartments and 'city living' destined to become the no go areas of the future

They have been building overpriced rubbish IMO and the true worth of the modern junk /policies on house building is being revealed

I don't know how they have got away with it for so long

FlightMan

Did she mention the phrases

"Pent up demand " And " chronic house shortage "?

Stupid ugly bint.

Luan Pra bang

As interest rates drop affordability increases. My mortgage has now halved due to a rate drop and becoming interest only. I now have a 5 bed detached house for 1000 pm. The cost of a house is a combination of its price and the interest rates available when this changes enough to generate a yield for investors expect prices to stabilise.

lozgti

You have lucky people on a tracker who have benefited.

As to the people wanting to buy a house now,are the rates being offered attractive though or realistically are most companies at sort of 5%?Further,given future drops in value I presume mortgage providers will want hefty deposits down?

Gone are the days of buying a house even if you didn't have two pennies to rub together.The market will only be available to those with real money