Will house prices finally fall?

[PupInAPram]

They've been defying gravity for so long, but surely now there are too many downward pressures?

[quote PupInAPram]@Lizziekisss depressing isn't it, when your kids do everything right, but you can't do the bank of mum and dad thing. They are stuck renting forever 😔[/quote]
It does depend where you live though.

Where we have moved to, my ds who is almost 20 will be able to buy a one bed flat and get on the ladder. He earns 25k and you can get a one bed here for around 80k. He’s living at home and saving.

If we still lived in London, he wouldn’t have had a hope just like us who were still renting at 40 until we moved up here!

@Keithlovessmash also depends on who your parents are. My DH was lucky to have a london mum who owned her house so we stayed with her for 3 years and bought a flat in london in 2019 in the same area.

I didn't know it when I was 5 years old but my MIL buying her house in 1997 ultimately paved the way for me buying a flat in 2019!

@Keithlovessmash could you have bought without an inheritance

[quote portionplate]@Keithlovessmash could you have bought without an inheritance [/quote]
No, we couldn’t. And like I said, we had to move 150 miles to be able to afford anywhere anyway (3 children in tow and got the nod to work from home so luckily could keep jobs, so we needed a 3 bed, but studio flats where we lived before were 300k anyway!).

That's the depressing point though, what about those who don't get an inheritance or can't remote work.

@portionplate sorry, pressed post too soon.

We were paying so much rent in London that we couldn’t save. And local authority workers so while dh especially has a very good job, they pay is crap, even though it was London.

@portionplate live with parents.

@desiringonlychild2022 what if the parents aren't near jobs, don't have space or a bad relationship?

[quote desiringonlychild2022]@Keithlovessmash also depends on who your parents are. My DH was lucky to have a london mum who owned her house so we stayed with her for 3 years and bought a flat in london in 2019 in the same area.

I didn't know it when I was 5 years old but my MIL buying her house in 1997 ultimately paved the way for me buying a flat in 2019![/quote]
I have friends who’s parents bought in parts of London that weren’t so desirable in the 1970s.

Mortgages paid off years and years ago, and those houses are now worth 1.5 million. So parents down size to cheaper areas and are able to give sizeable deposits.

I lived at my parents in London for a bit, buy loads of my friends parents didn't have the space.

&/or needed to contribute financially as their parents didn't have the income to support them.

@portionplate

That's the depressing point though, what about those who don't get an inheritance or can't remote work.

We were very, very lucky that dh work started a work from home policy in 2018. His boss had no trouble with him moving 150 miles away as long as he agreed to come in for a meeting 4 times a year. Almost everyone in his department got the hell out of London and moved away to much cheaper places.

@portionplate I know the options of living with parents,earning more money, marrying someone who earns more money, moving to a cheaper location, bank of mum and dad isn't for everyone but there truly isn't much else.

People my age don't vote in great enough numbers so we are an afterthought when it comes to policy making. Older people often don't understand, they just tell me that I will make do just like they did. Or that the house prices will come down, my MIL has recently stopped telling me that though! She was telling me that for ages when I was buying my flat, that it may go down 30% and then I will be able to afford to buy.

@portionplate actually what has happened is that the flat I bought for £392k in 2019, similar flat is now listed at £450k. And London is growing far less than the rest of the country.

Yep, my child has a professional career living in a different city to me. He lives alone spending a fortune to rent a one bedroom flat (recently moved from a House share as the days wfh were impossible.) He has saved a substantial deposit and has a decent salary but if you are a single adult in a city, house prices make owning impossible. Young adults who don't have well off parents are treated very badly when it comes to housing.

@PupInAPram the best thing he can do besides saving is to find a nice lady/guy ! my DH's colleague who is on 100k is aiming for that cos even he can't get the property he wants without a partner. to be fair, I was speaking to another resident who bought her flat way before the prices went crazy and she bought it with a friend too/had a lodger.

I am not sure how common it was even in the good old days to buy a property as a single adult. I know a lot of banks did not take the woman's income into consideration but actually a lot of women were contributing to the mortgage even if they only had little jobs.

[quote GlasswareisOverated]@Enzbear would you not please? It's not a nice thing to do.[/quote]
Who do you expect people to rent off if they can't buy then, Glassware? It's very hard to get a Council or Housing Association property and if someone doesn't have the money to purchase their own house what do you want them to do? Where will they live and sleep?

I don't think house prices will fall. These threads come up all the time on MN, I don't know anyone IRL who thought that prices would drop after Brexit or covid.

@ChicCroissant a lot of people thought that way about london property. It was thought the europeans would leave and many people would leave for the suburbs... but london house prices are still increasing. The reality is that despite everyone on forums and facebook rubbishing london, there are lots of people who want to live in London.

I didn't know anyone in 1989 who thought prices would fall either. Folk were gobsmacked!

@PupInAPram weren't people taking 100% mortgages though? with the exception of HTB, most people have larger deposits these days and the higher prices mean lots of FTB can't buy without big deposits (from parents and otherwise).

I've got properly alerts on at the moment with zoopla and right move, and I'm shocked at how many houses are being reduced around here. (South)

@Ratatoo a lot of p.eople are really optimistic, aren't they. Like valuing a house 100k above value. And then they reduce it by 50k. But if it sells at that price, its still a 50k increase.

@Ratatoo that's how it starts....

@desiringonlychild2022 - That's really interesting, certainly could be worth a look, and you are right about Londoner's' spreading out to our area, pushing prices up. Inevitable I guess as they get priced out of an area, or want more for the money.
@PupInAPram, it's the salary multiple thing that also creates the problem. We've been able to offer a little help but it's a spit in the ocean if you don't have the salary. They save, but prices increase faster, the get pay rises gradually but then are older so have to have a shorter mortgage term, and so it goes on. And now help to buy is stopping next year.

@Enzbear yes but people like myself who are forced into renting privately because of lack of social housing and therefore are charged half of our salary in order to have a roof over our heads and will likely be working until our late seventies as a consequence. With health conditions that already impact my ability to work and actually have a life outside of the whole having to work full time, as in I basically don't, are impacted hugely by the lack of affordable housing because of people like yourselves
No one should use other people's need to have a roof over their heads as something with which to line their pockets.
Would you choose to live in the property that you rent out, that all these first time buyers turned their nose up at?
Must have been a reason for that which is now inflicted upon your tenants.