What do people think is going to happen/happening to them ? There seems to be a lot of variance all over the country at the moment. Any thoughts ?

Depends what city you are in but in the next few months they will all level off, they will stay leveled off for a while, slowly fall then fall fast, losing between 15% and 40%.

Just like what is happening in the UK but lagging behind by about 18 months to 2 years.

Perth's already in the prices slowly falling bracket.

Just IMHO though.

Or the states I'm sure. There is a town near me with 170,000 population and 2,000 houses are foreclosed there. The people here that buy houses at full price are idiots. Deals to be had all over.

OMG that's terrible. What state are you in ?

Oregon. Though the town is in Washington state. Even so my town only has 25,000 and has about maybe 80 foreclosures? Many auctions as well.

Edit: Just looked. There are around 200 foreclosed in my town and another 191 pre-foreclosure - Yea I'm in the US if I never mentioned :P

I agree I know many people sitting on piles of cash and staying out of the market waiting for the inevitable fall. In the mean time I will continue to rent as it's still cheap to do so.

Todays property guide states that in coastal suburbs prices are still rising about 10%, mostly coastal area

We're looking in Brisbane, the market is still very hot if it's a good property. Five offers before the first open for inspection on a house we looked at on Saturday. We made an offer too, but the real estate agent was pushing for a price which we felt over valued the property.

Is that 10% per annum?

Over the past year, when the market flattened, only 6 suburbs slumped in value. They were Guildford, North Beach, Karawara, East Freo and Swanbourne. (The papers statistics, not mine). All other suburbs grew between 1% and 30%.

15-40%?

Melbourne's peaked, Sydney's slowly rising having had a bad few years, Perth is way overvalued, Brissy is still going great guns but can't last - gold coast is starting to level out.

The UK market is only sliding very slightly but I don't think it will 'fall' as such. A few years of little/no growth perhaps but that's it.

Some one mentioned the US - that's a completely different beast and I don't think the market there can be compared to either UK or Oz.

Graham

IMO Perth will continue to see growth, although not as much as over the past two years. There are still so many migrants coming with ready cash to snap up properties!

OK, thanks. I think the figures for the last two quarters would tell a different story. Vested interest groups like the real estate industry will always use the figures that best reflect what they want to say i.e. "house prices always go up"

It would also be good to hear some anecdotals like from Bobcat, but he's gone a bit quiet since that ugly spat with Nursebank.

Just had a call from the real estate agent seeing if we had made our final offer on the house (we had) - someone else has out bid us - I can't see any sign yet of a slowing housing market

Just wait and see if this "outbidder" is real or virtual. Unless, of course, you believe estate agents <g>