scotty 71

I knew it would only be a matter of time before I would be reading articles such as the one below





Taken from the Market Oracle.


A matter of days after soothing words on the prospects for UK house prices for 2008 were issued by the chief economist of Britain's largest Mortgage Bank (The Halifax), the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors released data today which shows the worst margin between rising and falling house prices since the height of the 1990's property crash.

The RICS data shows that only 4% of surveyors reported a price rise against 57% reporting price falls, thus resulting in a net negative reading of 53%, which seasonally adjusts to a 64% negative reading, the worst since June 1990. Stocks of unsold inventory continue to build up on surveyors books to levels not seen in a decade and up more than 50% over the last 12 months.



Home sellers hoping to escape the property slump via the quick auction route may find the situation there having further deteriorated since the most recent analysis of 2nd December showed a near 1/3rd of properties unable to be sold at that time despite cuts in reserve prices from months earlier.

As this analyst warned in an article barely 3 days ago, the UK housing market is primed for a crash that is scheduled to occur in April 2008 following the changes in capital gains taxes, though this is not the reason for falling house prices but merely a triggering point. Today's RICS data merely illustrates the tail end of the hurricane that is about to hit the UK housing market, which will be far more lasting and damaging than the recent stormy weather that has battered much of Britain's coastline.

The prospects for the UK housing market is to continue to trend towards at least a 15% fall in average house prices over 2 years from August 2007 to August 2009 (Data:Halifax NSA).

Basty

GUTTED

scotty 71

Me too Basty, absolutely gutted!

memewest

Me Too....

seat151

I'd rather the exchange rate go back up

BethandAndrew

Somebody pass me my happy pills
Beth x x

scotty 71

So would I if I had some money to exchange!

DEEDEE01

My god :curse: !!

I think I am now going to take drastic action, if we don't sell our house, we have nothing, I mean, NOTHING.

Think we are going to offer any possible buyers the 5% deposit towards their mortgage, we feel that is the only way to find somebody

Donna & Pete.

CarolineW

Why not just drop the price enough to make everyone want to buy your house?

I see that report about prices holding up was by the Halifax- not that they have a vested interest or anything.I bet they have been handing out 100% mortgages so the last thing they want is for prices to fall.The mortgage banks have a lot to answer for.

BethandAndrew

Been on the market 11 months now
Knocked £40k off so far...........and have changed EA's 3 times.
Totally a buyers market at the mo
Beth x x

DEEDEE01

Hi Caroline,

Think we may have to !!

Even if we only get £5k out of it, it will be better than nothing !!

Donna.

Timber Floor Au

Isnt it about time, poms got 5 extra points for having a house to sell !!!

aus2be_OH

Doesn't look good. Though it depends somewhat on your point of view.

Say for example (this is a real example in our area) last year a property would have sold for £200k. It is on the market today for £200k, thinking is it is worth at least what it was last year. Right?
Property does not sell and they keep reducing price until it reaches £150k. 25% drop in price! Not too good at all

Then again?

The house was bought 5 years ago for £50k. Over 5 years they have made a whopping 200% total profit or an average annual return of 40% .

Now I don't know about you but I don't know of any other asset that could have provided that level of return over the previous five years with such a relatively low level of risk.

Doesn't help those selling house at the minute (and I am one of them), but as I said it does all depends on how you view the situation.

Darren

scotty 71

Yes, we are in the same boat, this comes as a big blow to us, although not a surprise.
All our money is in the house too and we were hoping to go via the student route (the most expensive route for familys with children of school age) as the student route looks like the only way for our family to get to Australia anytime soon.
My husband hasn't enrolled onto the course YET as we wanted to sell the house first, we weren't brave enough to rely on the house selling fast given the current housing market.

I really don't know what we should do now, should we ride this out wait a few years for things to settle, because if it's going to be anything like the recession of the late 80's that's how long it took for things to get back on track, or should we just hold on tight and hope for the best and more than likely end up dropping the price of our house extortionate amounts, which then won't set us up as financially sucure as we would have been.

It's a hard one, it really is, I don't know what to do for the best at the moment. My eldest son is 10 and I really did not want him to start high school in England.


We are gutted to say the least but deep down I am sure we all knew what was coming. Blame the greedy Labour Government, they always manage to balls things up!:curse:

Gilly.

scotty 71

Can't you make that 100 points? With a nice new 4 bedroom house chucked in for good measure? Or am I being greedy now?