To think saying house prices could crash if we brexit will be a plus for many

[feellikeahugefailure]

The BoE and other banks say this as if it is universally bad news. If it stops the vast amount of foreign speculation on UK property then many will see it as a good thing.

Even if you own your own home, its paper gains unless you sell it. So even homeowners might want prices to fall as otherwise their children may never own a home.

A crash would be terrible for lots of people, I don't think it would help many as people would be stuck in their homes in negative equity.

Personally it doesn't effect me, I've used the exceptionally low interest rates to pay off my mortgage. Most of the people that I know have been better off due to the recession. (They still have a well paid job and lower interest rates often with great base rate trackers)

Savers have suffered due to interest rates and that's not ideal, a slight increase in interest rates would help savers. ( although this mostly this affect baby boomers who have had a good time anyway) cynically I think the Bank of England wants us to spend not save.

My brother was desperate for the market to crash a few years back as he hadn't bought a house. However even in recession they didn't fall that much, certainly not a dramatic crash that many hoped for. It just got harder to buy or remortgage.

People are forced to ride out the recession, negative equity keeps people from moving, down sizers sit tight and those in the middle extend/improve or pay down their mortgage. I think that it is myth that the housing market will implode.

Good point about not buying because you thought interest rates would be higher OP. I think the very low interest rates have blindsided most. Defintely winners and losers.

I think you're actually very selfish. When you wish for a crash you are actually thinking purely of yourself getting onto the ladder at rock bottom price.

Good luck with that one though - I suspect you'll be renting for life.

What I didn't know is that they would lower interest rates to the lowest they have ever been, print money, and prop up the market with help to buy and all that. The housing market now in the UK is very manipulated. With the BTL changes it's looking very rocky indeed for the future
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They found a way to prop it up..they will do that again.
If you want to buy, then you should buy and hope for the best. If you are paying rent it not much different anyway, just don't overstretch.

This is a hugely complex issue and the reality is no one knows what will happen to house prices, employment rights or the economy if Brexit happens.

A house price crash would be a disaster for the economy. The market will freeze, no one will sell, the banks will have balance sheet issues so will stop lending - no first time buyers would get mortgages. Everyone involved in ancillary businesses - construction, property management, builders merchants, DIY retail would see their jobs come under pressure and this would have knock on effects to the rest of the economy.
Just go look in Spain where house prices came down 75% + in some places - it is certainly no nirvana for first time buyers!

You can buy a 2-3 bed terrace in Nottingham for 70k. In fact there's a 3 bed on for £50k at the moment. You could even commute to London from Nottingham (and plenty do).

It's OK saying that if my starter home value falls then the next size up will also fall. What deposit will I have to buy it with if the fall has wiped out all my equity? So I will be stuck in my starter home and there will be less housing stock for those trying to get on the ladder

Whilst as a very unhappy renter I wish hpuses were more affordable BUT
A crash will not make them affordable, houses will be in negative equity, banks will stop lending. People who HAVE (divorced, bereavement, job moves) to sell won't be able to clear their mortgage let alone walk away with any money. People coming to the end of their 3 year mortgage deals won't be able to remortgage.

Whilst I truly wish we could have a price adjustment so my family and others could build a settled life, I don't wish for a crash as I can see it actually won't really help

They found a way to prop it up..they will do that again.
If you want to buy, then you should buy and hope for the best. If you are paying rent it not much different anyway, just don't overstretch.

Well they will run out of props soon enough. Soon there will be the political will to crash prices, as the gap between the have and have not increases.

Good point about not buying because you thought interest rates would be higher OP. I think the very low interest rates have blindsided most. Defintely winners and losers.

Exactly there are winners and losers. To suggest there would be no winners and only losers if prices fell is silly. The same people calling me simple and one sided are doing the same.

I don't think a crash from a "leave" vote would be across the while country, but then the whole country hasn't had house prices pushed up by foreign investment and higher demand from EU immigration.

It is interesting that house price falls are always presented as a crisis for everyone, it really depends on why they've fallen (usually it's because they are reflecting a crash in the economy), and how easy it is for the banks to repossess homes and get them back on the market.

I'm not entirely convinced house prices will "crash" after a leave vote anyway.

Op sorry you missed out in 2007/9, DH was like you, convinced a bigger correction was coming and we should continue to hold off buying, but I got pregnant with dc1, and we decided we'd rather not be in rented. as it is, our house has gone up in value and the big crash didn't happen. If we hadn't had a baby then, we might have continued to hold on for the "big crash" watching house buying move steadily out of reach instead.

The starter home I bought ten years ago ( and sold making 35% gain) is now on the market for less than I paid.
Had I not moved on I would still be stuck in it or selling at a loss when you factor in all the costs of buying/selling and interest payments.

I think starter homes fair the worst in recession.

As far as I remember, in 2008 house prices didn't fall that much

Ours fell by 10%. We bought in 2006 for £86k total (the house was valued at £68k...we had a 125% mortgage whilst they still existed).

Anyway we did a load of work to the house and it was re-valued at £100k in 2007. It was valued again at the end of 2008 and it had dropped to £90k. We were still better off though...we're one of the few where a 125% mortgage was one of the best things we ever did.

they will run out of props soon enough. Soon there will be the political will to crash prices, as the gap between the have and have not increases.

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Yes but you thought that in 2009 didn't you?
I think politicians are quite happy with gap between the haves and have not, not sure they are helping those without.

I can't see prices stopping going up as long as our population continues to grow. The demand for houses still massively exceeds supply and it is as simple as that as far as I can see.

The only winners in a housing price crash situation, where employment will be unstable, would be buy to let people and cash buyers. So more greedy landlords, pushing up rents so people have no hope of saving to buy anyway.

There might be a few who get lucky with timing (like my parents in the 80s who bought a 5 bed house for 30k which was worth double that a few years later) but most people will lose out or be stuck where they are.

Feellike I think you will be in your situation forever, a house is a risk one way or another. No job is ever secure either. By not buying and saddling yourself with debt(your words) you have now saddled your self with insecure housing and in what I would think is a less favourable situation.

I don't believe house prices will drop that much if at all - as someone else said they will prop up the system no matter what - no one can afford for the market to devalue that much.

ThroughThickAndThin01 Resentful, not delightful. It would free up a lot of homes, that can't be denied.

Op can you get a mortgage? ( in a less expensive area maybe?)
If you had bought back on 2008 you would have paid 7 years off your mortgage by now,.
How much have you spent in rent?

I don't think the crash wishers logically think things through. For example, how would they know when the market has hit bottom? would it be safe to buy at 20% lower when it can possible fall further? Would the banks lend to you in a free falling market when they could be over valuing your potential house?

Is your job in the private sector where you could lose your job if home owners prioritise keeping their home over spending on anything else, wrecking the wider economy? In fact most home owners would probably wait it out so there won't be many houses to buy anyway.

The idea that a housing crash will occur in a vacuum is a bit
If confidence has fallen enough to cause a crash then there will be other economic problems to go along with it which will not make anyone better off.

The best thing for people who want to get on the ladder would be a stabilisation in prices or slower growth to give them a chance to catch up on saving for a deposit. A wrecked economy will help nobody apart from the super rich who outright own their properties, don't need to work, have investments, assets in other countries etc

When the house market falls, developers tend to stop building and banks tend to become cautious.

Practically some people would benefit, but those would be the people who could put down a large deposit or pay cash, not first time buyers trying to get a mortgage.

I think it would be good for most ordinary families if house prices just stabilised and stayed the same, even those that rent as rent increases with market value

In the event of a crash the worst affected would be those with multiple properties purchased near to the top of the market with high loan to value interest only mortgages

If lots of people are in negative equity, then the banks will have an issue. They have to have saving to cover every £1 they lend. If they are exposed to bad losses from negative equity their ability to lend is compromised.

People on the bottom rung of the ladder will not be able to move up, so there would be a shortage of first time buyer properties available.

People will loose jobs. People wont be able to relocate if they do find another job.

A crash would disproportionately hit different areas. It would affect London where prices are most inflated less and regional areas where prices are more affordable most.

People who have money in the bank, would find it easier to buy up lots of properties at a cheaper price as they would not need to get a mortgage.

There are more likely to be people who default on their mortgage and loose their property.

So do you think that it will be easier for the average normal person to get a house?