Is anyone slowly going mad trying to buy a house?

[tawse57]

Hi,

I have been looking to buy a house for nearly 3 years now since the height of the housing bubble in, so the experts say, early 2007 to mid 2008 depending on where you live in the country.

I live in Wales and the view is that the housing bubble peaked sometime around the early part to middle of 2008.

I have been viewing and looking at houses endlessly since then but, bizarrely, the asking prices now are HIGHER than in 2007 or 2008. In some cases they are much higher. What on earth is going on?

Are people just being very greedy? Or are people simply but greedily falling for high estate agent valuations and then wondering why they get few viewings and no buyers?

Or is it that just so many people are in massive debt that they are adding their credit debt onto the price of their house? Something does not make sense here - houses should be CHEAPER now than at the height of the bubble but people seem to be asking a lot more for their house during this recession than during the housing boom. It does not make sense.

The country is in recession, unemployment is rising and I keep reading in the papers that the banks are bust. I keep listening to David Cameron and Nick Clegg saying that the country almost went bust due to a massive housing and credit bubble fuelled by Labour and the banks when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were running the country.

So why are house prices so much higher today than they were 3 or 4 years ago.

Some of the estate agents I have got to know well tell me that if they do not over-value a property then one of their competitors will get it on their books. What good does over-valuing do?

I only want to buy a house and had my heart set on moving in by Christmas 2009 at the latest but, at this rate, I won't be in a house till Christmas 2015!

Is anyone else frustrated by this? I just want a nice, smallish 3 bed semi but it seems that I am being asked to pay for a mansion.

T.

They are already falling. Down 2% year on year and where I live is usually pretty immune but it is happening. I think they would have fallen to acceptable levels in 2007 onwards if there had be no interestbrate drops and quantative easing. Usually when banks demand large deposits theynare protecting themselves from falls. No one can afford current levels and firstbtime buyers are non existent.

And yet houses are selling and selling quite well, at the right price - which is the key!

Well the agent who sold ours said they have sold the least this summer in a few years. Our purchase fell through at exchange and he said he thinks we will be glad. I renovate for a living and there is a pattern that emerges when prices fall and it is happening now.I am quite happy for prices to fall as I don't rely on a rising market and if they don't our kids will never have a chance even to bloody rent as that is so tied to house prices now and is ridiculous.

reuters They are not selling well at all.

Noddyholder, worth pointing out that in that report, it says estate agents only sold on average 1 house per week!! Something for people to think about next time they are told by the estate agent about others queing up ready to buy...

Yes the agents lie like mad! I 'know' several and they tell me the truth sometimes and atm the 2 I know say things are dire.

I've had the same convos, noddy. Sometimes I think they're looking for a shoulder .

Jilly, my view is that while it may well be the case that there are more people around who WANT a house in the future, it doesn't mean they will be able to afford to pay enough money to sustain rising prices.

Home owners are in denial and I would not touch anything without at least 20 % off- the housing market has further to drop and it is only a matter of time before interest rates go up.
People do not get that the stock that is their house has gone down in value as they assume it was going to keep going up each year.Yes people are greedy too.

Keep looking and keep offering 20 % below.Eventually you get a seller who really needs to sell and that is your house.