Good house price calculator

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

Just found this house price calculator - it's pretty interesting. Put in what a house was last sold for and when/where and it gives an approximate value now based on halifax and nationwide figures.

I was looking at a house which I'm fairly sure is overpriced but according to that it's 20% overpriced . Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

www.lcplc.co.uk/calculators/house-price-calculator/

Not looked but does it/how would it take account of any improvements? What makes it different from the wildly inaccurate zoopla?

No, it doesn't. But obviously it's a simple job then of asking the owners what they have done in the house and deciding if that justifies the price rise. Also, if you look at rightmove sold prices you can often see the old photos from the last sale so can get a good idea of what, if anything, they have done.

I just put my house details in (no changes to house since we bought it), and I would say it was fairly accurate. Its 11% lower than we paid in 2008.

Now it doesn't take into account that due to other developments in the area our houses are un sellable but if they were, I think what it calculates is a realistic price.

It will be interesting to see if anything sells on my estate so I can see if its right! The only thing sold in the last 2 years was a repo and that went stupidly low .

I've just put a house I have sold recently and would say it is nonsense

Based on when I bought it (early 2006) the calculator suggests it should have rusen in value by 3%. I have just sold it for a little over 55% more than I paid for it. I have done some work but certainly not that much

And to add the house was in a popular commuter belt area, where house prices continue to increase regardless.

Way out. We have recently had the house valued by 3 estate agents who all said much much more.

I wouldn't necessarily listen to the EA valuations. They're all wildly optimistic round here.

I put in the values for a house we offered on and were rejected. The calculator (and our own analysis of comparable sold house prices) suggests that our offer was about right. Well, according to the Halifax our original, taking the piss offer was probably right. But nationwide think the final offer was closer to the 'right' value. The vendors, however, think their house is worth loads more and their EA isn't suggesting otherwise.

The house we're actually buying has, according to those figures, risen in value compared to when it was last sold (to the building company in a part-exchange). We're paying a lot less than that, and our surveyor valued it accordingly.

So, yeah, not necessarily right (although better than zoopla, which seems to use a random number generator rather than anything likely to predict the current value) but could be helpful in amongst other things.

valuations by region are meaningless, surely?

Pretty accurate for me, it was the calculator we used when we went to fix our mortgage rate recently. Our house is one of the bigger ones on the street so looks odd price wise compared with the average for this street.

So technically house prices fell, we have done some improvements to the house including converting the double garage into a playroom and retained a store room at the back.

Therefore we know that added value, no effect on off street parking as we have room for 4 cars.

The mortgage company sent a surveyor out so we know what they think it is worth.

Very inaccurate. Valuation is about £100k too low based on recent comparable sales in our immediate area (£340k as compared to £450k)

Out by at least 100K probably 200K for my house.

You don't know what its worth until you try to sell it. You may have a figure in your head and these websites help but its up to the buyer to offer and the bank to lend. Even houses in desirable areas are sitting there atm. One agent called me today re a lovely apartment big period good road started at 365k in Feb. Dropped twice I think and its now 300k. But they indicated that 250 would be considered as we are cash and in rented. Its not what I am looking for though but shows what the market is doing.

seems accurate to me (house sold this month). Obviously there will be streets and areas and houses which buck the trend, but Nationwide/Halifax don't make these numbers up, they're based on sold house prices - if everyone on this thread is saying their house is worth more than the calculator shows, it has to mean that their neighbour's house must be worth a lot less!

Hi Ponders, When looking for homes for clients my experience is that regional valuations are very much a reality. For example, central London prices climbed again in June, for the 20th consecutive month - they are now 48% higher than the low point of the market in the early part of 2009. So, as a region London is massively out perfoming the rest of the country.

That said, regional valuation/price trends play only a part in the value of your home, they don't determine what it is worth, or what an individual buyer will pay for it.

Damsel I'm not one to defend estate agents but I will say their estimates for our house were in line with the sold values (not asking prices) of the three homes sold nearest to us in the last 9 months.

300k too low based on last five sold prices in my road (all this year.) But we are in a popular London borough so I'm not surprised.

It seems ridiculously high to me. We bought our house in 2000. It reckons that it should have more than doubled in value. I don't think so.

I think the comments on the thread illustrate how meaningless regional pricing is, HomeSearcher

"fairly accurate", "nonsense", "Way out", "Pretty accurate", "Very inaccurate", "Out by at least 100K", "300k too low", "ridiculously high"

I think you misunderstood my point. Yes, of course London prices are higher than the rest of the country, but within London (& all other regions) there will be wild variations in price by locality whether up, down or stable

Interesting.

For our place the highest estimate is in line with what our neighbour just sold for last month.

For the market in our area that makes sense in the contect of the possible price ranges in Greater London.

(Did anyone else have trouble with the cookie acceptance clearing their form back to the 100k in 2012 default? I nearly died when the first estimate came up!! It was 300k different! But for completely the wrong data! Phew)

It's a useful guide but don't forget the current owner may have bought low, because the previous owner had to sell quickly, or high, because they fell in love with the house and had a bidding war.

Btw I base my valuation on the value local houses have made recently. The Nationwide value was closer if I put our house as London rather than South East. I think the Nationwide's own calculator is better. But I
I've somewhere above average in desirability, and where new home building is limited.

The Halifax one on LCPL was very accurate for my house. I am SSTC at the moment for 2k less than what it came up with. Whereas Nationwide was 10k higher.

Part of the problem with the regional thing is the regions on there are too big. Our region is "Yorkshire and Humber" but the market in York is an awful lot different to the market in Driffield.