Will house prices in Cam ever start falling?

[JumpJockey]

We've been in our current house for 7 years, DH bought for about 200k at the absolute top of his budget - we're a victorian terrace and lots of people in the area are selling for £280-300k for 3 beds like us, which is great on the one hand but also means that people who are now in DH's position 7 years ago may never be able to afford the first step on the ladder.

It used to be that if you wanted to stay in the city (rather than the villages on the edge) you basically added another £100k per bedroom, so we could possibly have been looking at 4 beds for £400k. Now they're all at least half a mil if not £600k plus if you want to be within cycling distance of the city centre. (I have to fetch dd from nursery on the way home from work so can't have a journey that's too long on a bike in winter, the bus ride is impracticably complicated)

It's driving me mad to keep on reading that everywhere else in the country house prices have fallen or stabilised, whereas Cambridge is one of the 5 or 6 places where prices keep on going up and up, especially in the 'family homes' bracket. Does anyone think they'll ever fall? I'd really like to be able to afford 4 beds at some point before retiring...

I'm afraid I think they are going to stay high. The demand for city centre properties is outstripping demand and given teh city centre cannot grow I don't see what will change. I think house prices did drop in 2008 for a little bit, but not for long. We bought our current house then (although didn't manage to sell our house in the kite for a few months at the time) but have just remortgaged and even the computers say our house is worth more than we paid for it. The only times to buy in central Cambridge IMO is when everyone is saying hosue prices are crashing and will drop so wait.

If people really need to sell, reductions will happen and have been happening. Lots of houses coming back onto the market, lots, pity we don't like them or can't afford them . There is a scarcity of houses in 'the middle', we are not first-time buyers but we don't want a mansion.

The latest farce is that we offered on this house which was sold for more we wanted to offer only to come back onto the market a month or so later. So we offered again, irony is we can proceed, unlike those who outbid us. The question is... have the owners unreasonable expectations? It needs masses of work. Agent is calling every day to keep us in the loop but I won't hold my breath. The street has become expensive in the past two years as not far from centre - but right now houses are not selling like hot cakes anymore. It seems like many buy to let buyers have vanished. We have had much less competition on anything we offered on.

Despite these signs, we have decided that if we don't find something soon we will have to move back to London where prices have been falling in the areas we are looking at and we can even get a semi or detached for less.

Fingers crossed people will realise that the recession is still on and people are not made of money. Our borrowing power has been reduced massively and three financial advisers tell me we are not the only ones who have problems borrowing, it's very tight at the moment, which could be a factor for price reduction.

goldenpeach - exactly, the 'middle' area is what I mean, people who have outgrown their first step on the ladder, bought-as-a-couple house, but can't afford the crazy prices on family homes. Hope you get some good news on the place you offered. I think a lot of it is unrealistic expectations given by EAs to sellers; we've seen a few places reduced in price (still outside our budget...) but they're mostly only because the initial asking price was so ridiculous, not because the prices on the whole are falling.

Also agree re London, dd's godmother just bought a beautiful big house in zone 3 for £300 that would have gone for £500+ in Cambridge. It's insane!

Well, there are other signs... Estate agents have changed their tune. Last year and up to spring we got laughed at, ignored, we have been patronised, etc... for offering under asking prices.

We only offered once at asking price because it was realistically priced compared to others in the street (but don't think we'll get that because of mortgage restrictions).

So we realised you really have to offer on lots. Luckily we have nothing to sell, which helps. It's like a lottery, buy lots of tickets for changes to perhaps win? Just fed up of renting, it has been two years+ if I add up the time spent in another town.