Is this the right or wrong time to buy a house?

[rustyfunk 10]

Yes extremely overpriced.

 

Just watch the glut of flats coming onto the market, rising unemployment and a reduction in the numbers of students coming to Sheffield in September and see what happens.

 

The banks now lend too much, people can get an "interest only" mortgage which in the future will be a bigger scandal than endowment mortgages.

 

Of course it's the people buying-to-let who are doing the socio-economic damage to this country which only a large slump in yields/house prices will stop.

 

 

Can i get a frickin witness!

 

Well said that man - i thought i was alone in seeing the unravelling of this countrys economic stability, and the ensuing crumble of UK house prices.

 

As soon as IRs start to creep up (which they will - 'cos there is no way in hell inflation is currently around the target of 2%) see those repos/bankruptcies soar...

 

the writing has been on the wall for some time now - smart money has been moved from property to the FTSE (which breached 6000 today), and over the last 18 months has been replaced by stupid money in the form of rookie BTLers, who think renting out is means of somehow printing money.

 

'house prices only go up you know...the nice man at the halifax said so'

[steviewonder 10]

I've gotta agree with the "doing research" approach. I know too many people who have simply gone out and bought without looking at the state of the housing market.

[RichD 10]

It appears prices in Sheffield have continued to rise well above the national average for the last year. I missed out on a house a year ago that has now come back on sale for 20% more. Of course it remains to be seen if it will actually fetch that price, and I've no idea what it finally sold for last year because I dropped out when I couldn't afford to keep up with the bidding anymore. But a 20% increase in asking price probably means roughly a 20% increase in actual price.

Oh... my... god.

Assuming the "Actual selling prices" on upmystreet are accurate, the house in question actually SOLD for 20% over the asking price a year ago. So the current asking price is actually what they paid for it.

[Cuey 10]

It's not just Sheffield. The EU did a report on house prices that rated the UK as about 30% over valued in real terms. But what do you do, if you want a house you have to pay it.

 

I certainly wouldn't be getting into buy to let a t the moment.

 

If the average house price is about 6 times the average wage then there will certainly come a point where it all stops. Hopefully it will stall rather than collapse but who knows.

 

The massive increase of second third and fourth houses in this country is what caused the havoc in the market and should have been stopped.

[Cyclone 10]

should have been stopped how, you can't legislate against private ownership of property.

 

If there's an increase in IR, then it might cause a problem for a minority of people, but there's no indication of interest rates being raised to ridiculous levels as they were in the early 80's.

So assuming that doesn't happen, no million houses suddenly appear and no sudden epemic kills a large number of people, supply and demand would seem to indicate that the prices will at best stay flat.

 

I'd be interested to see this EU report, and see how they worked out the value in real terms. What does that mean. The value of anything is simple the price the market will bare. There is no notional 'correct' value for something, it's whatever you can get away with charging.

 

The housing market isn't a perfect market, it's not even that close, so there will be periods of over and under adjustment whilst corrections take place to catch up with changes, but there's no indication that any major correction is required at the moment.

[keithhazel 10]

think house prices are over the top every where, unfortunatly i didnt jump when i had the chance and am living greatly to regret...

[rustyfunk 10]

should have been stopped how, you can't legislate against private ownership of property.

 

 

You can tax it though...

[coggy 10]

should have been stopped how, you can't legislate against private ownership of property.

 

If there's an increase in IR, then it might cause a problem for a minority of people, but there's no indication of interest rates being raised to ridiculous levels as they were in the early 80's.

So assuming that doesn't happen, no million houses suddenly appear and no sudden epemic kills a large number of people, supply and demand would seem to indicate that the prices will at best stay flat.

 

I'd be interested to see this EU report, and see how they worked out the value in real terms. What does that mean. The value of anything is simple the price the market will bare. There is no notional 'correct' value for something, it's whatever you can get away with charging.

 

The housing market isn't a perfect market, it's not even that close, so there will be periods of over and under adjustment whilst corrections take place to catch up with changes, but there's no indication that any major correction is required at the moment.

 

I have to agree 100% with Cyclone ! Supply and demand will always play a big part ! I think that any serious correction etc will not be happening in these areas. Possibly down South and in New build IMHO

[Cuey 10]

Rather nieve Cyclone. There are a number of ways to stop, taxation on houses for investment only being just one. And yes you can have something overvalued even though demand is CURRENTLY high. It's called a "bubble" it's happened from tulips to shares and every nieve mug that got caught at the end got stung. Demand is a illusory notion. It can stop very quickly when people realise they are not getting a product or service relative to what they are paying as a percentage of their income. It's an economics thing.

[Cyclone 10]

you're arguing semantics, whilst the demand is there the price is correct, once the demand changes, the price changes to match. Just because something falls in price doesn't mean it was previously overvalued.

It's an economics thing.

 

I suppose taxation could have been used to make a 2nd home less desirable. However I'd hate to be the political party that passed that taxation.

[PROJECT 10]

despite what anyone thinks as cyclone pointed out, if a house is overpriced no one (unless they are pretty stupid) will buy it, it really is that simple. The real value of a property is almost irrelevant, the price people are prepared to pay for a property is the important thing

[mifsit 10]

We got so miffed at the estate agents constant stupid games "another person has offered £50 more do you want to up your offer" that in the end we bought a new house directly off the builders, and got a discount due to late completion. So if you are being given the run around by estate agents and vendors go to the new estates builder and see what you can get.