House Prices in 2008

[Brando]

What do people think: up, down, stagnate or crash? Discuss and please add all references.

I'm desperate to buy a house at home in Cornwall and have been saving hard for the past 2 years. The more I save the higher the prices get at a rate I just can't keep up with. I definitely think a crash is looming and pray it will hit at the end of this year in time for me to get a Christmas / early 2009 house at an ok rate.

I tend to use:

* rightmove.co.uk to keep track of property in the area I want to buy
* http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/ to keep track or prices of actual sales
* and the bbc and times/times online to read all property predictions from analysts and property/economy related news.

[charlesr]

Have a look at the property sites of things like Nationwide and Halifax for random predictions by people who are paid to make random predictions.

e.g. http://nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/default.asp

What I don't understand is how they measure inflation. If inflation has been a steady 2% for the last 5 years, how come house prices which take up the largest proportion of your income have rocketed over the last 5 years. If they take into account the price of things like TVs, it's pretty stupid cos technology crashes in price all the time. Things like bread and water rates and gas/oil/petrol should be the main indicators.

[Mad Gear]

The prices haven't really moved at all the past year or so in the Gloucestershire area. Many people are having to drop a fair chunk off their prices to sell.

[Nijo]

House prices are not included in the CPI inflation measure. The RPI (which includes mortgage payments) is 4.3%.

In my opinion house prices are due a downturn, but a proper downturn needs widespread negative sentiment... which does appear to be spreading. If the Q4 bank results include more credit crunch stories then I could see the Rightmove/Halifax/Nationwide indices going negative by April 08, even if the Bank of England cuts interest rates twice more.

If you're going to track Rightmove, keep an eye on http://www.property-tools.co.uk/, a plug-in for Firefox that embeds price history (though it seems to be down at the moment).

http://www.propertysnake.co.uk/ might also give you hope.

[oblivion_6]

Im hoping they will stay pretty much the same, were hopefully selling our 1 bed flat this year, which thanks to the market has jumped about 20k in value.

Its all relative lo coz the next place we go for has jumped up in price as well making the 20k profit pretty much dissapear

In Scotland the prices still seem to be rising steadily all last year so I cant see it happen. I just find it hard to fathom how people afford some of the higher end houses like the 350K+ ones, are they taking out a 300k mortgage at like nearly 2k a month and are just minted beyond belief or are they making a fortune buying and selling?!?!

[Brando]

http://www.propertysnake.co.uk/ might also give you hope.

Thanks Nijo, I forgot about property snake!!!! I love it for obvious reasons .

[Herbalizer]

My wife and I just put an offer in on a house. We're first time buyers and its pretty scary.

This is the house

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetai...a_n=1&tr_t=buy


We offered 7k below asking just to test the water. Taking my Dad with me on Monday as he knows his stuff and he can check for important things that I just wouldn't know about.

[NW2013]

Looks good buddy, good luck!

[ChrisF]

Lovely looking house - good luck with the offer. I wouldn't even attempt to pronounce the location!

[Spatial]

Pont-ar-dow-e

Innit buttie.

This is the problem I have with house prices at the moment. While I'm sure it's a cracking house (and if you can aford it Herbalizer and want to live there then go for it) but from what I'm seeing there it's in no way worth even 7k under the asking price. Even the house I live in isn't worth the price I'd get for it.

House Prices in this country are still just stupid money these days. I love all those sheeple who just think that house prices can only go up. I get the feeling 2008 might be the year where they start to realise how wrong their mantra is.

[Herbalizer]

My Dad rang me about an hour ago after he had done some research on the internet. It turns out the house had been listed by remax previously and its sale price was ?130k

http://uk.propertyfinder.com/2/pf/pr...ERTY_DETAILS&=

The house next door (to the left) sold for ?184k in 2005. Thats just silly money for the area.


We saw the house the same time as another couple and the agent said they were making an offer, if they went in at asking price then I'm walking away. I'll pay 112k for it but nothing more.

[112]

112K sounds like a good price to me

112

[IanE]

Bad idea, stick to your guns, stick to £7k below asking, don't budge whatsoever, otherwise you'll end up improving small amounts and before you know it, you may as well have offered asking price.

[k0pp0]

We're selling at the moment, proper 100 year+ terraced 2 bed in Wiltshire. Bloody nightmare, it's been on the market since July.
We sold our previous house in Yate (****hole) within a matter of days..

C'mon you loaded London swines! BUY MY HOUSE!

[Herbalizer]

Took my dad to see the house tonight. within 5 minutes he's noticed enough stuff wrong to convince me to withdraw the offer tomorrow.

- Bricks on the front of the house are moving, some badly done work has been carried out to rectify this, but its going to cause problems at some point.

- possible damp problems in two bedrooms - this is the main reason, I hate damp as its ruined many a flat for me.

- Skirting boards changed to hide the fact the floor has dropped over time.

These are the kind of things that you will encounter on old properties I guess. My wife and I are gutted but its for the best in the long run.