Anyone else trying to buy a house in an area that hasn't seen prices drop??

[moomiemoo]

We're trying to buy a house in an area where there really hasn't been a drop in prices. I think this is partly because it's a popular area, partly because there are LOTS of buy to let's for the student Market and partly because supply has dropped too.

We have to move and we're struggling to find things within our price range - and everything is going for around the asking price.

All this talk of buyer's markets and low offers in other parts of the country has me a bit

Is it only a matter of time before prices start dropping here too so should we try and sit it out in rentals? Anyone else experiencing similar and buying regardless?

We are finding the same problem - prices haven't dropped and there's next to nothing coming on the market. We're still looking to buy on the basis that it will be a house for a good few years so if prices do drop after we've bought we'll be staying put anyway so it doesn't matter so much (well that's the theory :o) Good luck with your search!

I think that some areas will see very little change in prices - apparently the town we live in was pretty much unaffected by the previous drop in house prices in the 90s. I think prices did drop a little around 2 years ago but have gone up again since. But it is a very expensive area now (wasn't when we moved here!) due to proximity to London & lots of people moving our here when they start a family...

I think that's what we'll do too as we're desperate to be settled with our 3 dcs. It's really frustrating and we might end up renting yet as it looks like we'll complete on our sale by mid-nov and still don't have anywhere to go! Good luck with your search too!

Same situation for us as in a very popular area where lots of families move out of London for bigger houses good schools etc and for the last few years prices have been extortionate everything going for exorbitant asking price generally. However, the last couple of weeks or so we have really noticed a slight suggestion of asking prices coming down and definitely more willingness to accept offers, the estate agents are now saying this more up front, so it may be worth hanging on for a bit? I am no expert but we certainly feel like there may be a bit of an opportunity coming up where w are.

We've been renting for 3 years since sold our place incidentally and it hasn't been too bad at all, don't rule it out ( maybe more short term than us, we were a bit lazy about starting to look again)

Out of interest - where are you all based (am assuming it's South East) - we're in Oxford.

Yes south east for us, east Surrey

Yes, South Bucks.

Same here, in Cambridge. One house we know has sold twice in the past two and a half years, and sold for £20,000 more the second time - to people who promptly started ripping the insides out and knocking it all down.

We have sold for more than we bought and we bought just before it all crashed in Summer 2007. Our house has topped the ceiling price on our road twice!

We're looking at a house tomorrow which looks like a bit if a bargain so I'm fully expecting it to be hideous!

We had ours valued a few months ago and the agent said it was worth 20% less than we paid for it in 2007, fair enough but then when we said it's not for sale at that price he couldn't get his head around it and just kept repeating it's dropped in price.
All very well but if we aren't forced to sell then why the heck would anyone take less than you paid, he looked very confused and then went on to say that nothing new had come on the market for the past month in our area.
So supply and demand then er means you can ask for more money .... again he looked puzzled.
I think estate agents are having a very hard time of it at the moment.