What the housing market like in your area?

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It managed to bounce back to 2007 highs last year and I'm told the first time buyers market is particularly strong locally.

I know near me there is one massive building project (the kind where they build hundreds of homes over 2 years) that had been moved to a slower pace in 2010 and then pretty much mothballed part way through in 2011ish. It is now flying forward at a scary pace. Other land that had been earmarked as future building plots has been dormant for years and now machinery is appearing.

Homes up to 250k shifting within weeks, which gets you a modern small 4 bed house in ok part of town or small character cottage in a village. Over 250k slower. Over 1m completely stagnant still.

Mad here in Surrey (commuter belt). Thank god we bought last year (although even that was slim pickings) - friends are trying to buy now and everything family sized is flying out the door/going to sealed bids. Schools are very good around here so the prices are sky high. It's crazy. Luckily we bought something unusual and cheap to extend so we can stay here longterm (20 years plus easy). Feel bad for anyone looking at the mo - it really is a sellers market.

What's going to happen when interest rates go up. Which they eventually will. I hope people have thought about this but I doubt it.

I'm in the west of Ireland - property is still stagnant. It is disheartening (and a bit scary) to hear how madly prices are rising in London and in Dublin when businesses are still closing down here even after surviving 5 years of recession.
Come and move here those who can't afford mad city prices - the sun is always shining and it's hardly ever raining....or windy. Storms??? What are they???

We're very lucky in the Poole (Dorset) area, as prices have held up very well over the last few years and are definately on the increase again now. We even have instances of perfectly good 1950s houses in our road be bought by developers, demolished and replaced with modern "glass and stainless steel" designs. We close to the Harbour, so beach-style houses are appearing everywhere.

Buoyant.
East Midlands.

4 houses on my road have had boards go up with "sold" on!
They don't even put pics on rightmove!

Yes since we bought last year 4 houses on our road have sold within weeks of going on.

rachelmonday1 - I fail to see how you are "very lucky" that prices are definately on the increase again". Do you also feel lucky when food prices & petrol increase in price?

SW London here and it's very mental.

The SE London bubble has left me speechless at how quickly it has moved.

When it pops, how big will the fall be? i.e what should a zone 2/3 2 bed house be worth, 3 bed house be worth? We bought 3 years ago because we could afford to (we didn't really know about the bubble etc, we were new to the country and tbh I couldn't believe that we could in fact afford to buy a house in London).

Our house is now worth £60,000 more (apparently ) so does that mean if someone buys it now and the bubble burst they are in at least £60,000 worth of negative equity (assuming 2010 price for London was right?) or do you think it will tank further than 2010 prices in London?

Anything that comes up for sale here sells within a few weeks. Prices have been steadily rising after a big drop in 2007, but the market here is not as heated as SW. London. We are in East surrey.

I heard that our old flat in SW london recently sold for £120k more than the new owners paid 3 years ago!

To be honest I doubt London prices will ever drop. At the worst they will stagnate.

Angry that's what I fear, that really there will be no dip in London. We don't intend to buy again there (next move will be home) but I always said to DH we'd sell for close to what we paid, we've managed to pay down a lot and it was/is cheaper then when we were renting.

However, a house very near to us has been on the market for a while, their asking price was about £10,000 more than we paid so really quite 'cheap' for London. It took a long to sell...the reason? Because it was so 'cheap' people thought there was a problem with it! So it's kind of a weird situation, you have to whack on the £££ so some poor bastard will buy it at that price??

Crazy in Central West London. Flats are going on at 100k more than the last flat that went under offer (so within a matter of days/ weeks). We are selling up to get somethng cheaper. Agents are saying that buyers are getting weary of the stupid prices.

Sluggish here. Which is frustrating as we need to locate to the overheated bubble that is the South East

Property prices always go through a mini boom this time of year.

Mental in SE London. I met an estate agent last week who said that they couldn't keep up and kept looking like idiots as valuations/asking prices were being exceeded by so much.
I think a lot of families in London have sat tight over the past few years and done home improvements if they couldn't afford to move. There is suddenly a lot more confidence in the market that it is not going to tank and that we are not all at risk of redundancy at any moment.

Pretty mad here (Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire). Most properties are either going to a closing date or way over valuation

I think it's more than a mini boom. Possibly people think prices won't go down any further which they might not. But it's a lot more than just property prices. There is mortgage interest rates to consider and also won't the cap on housing benefit have some impact. I think people rushing to pay huge prices now to secure a property could well be in trouble in a few years or less. Especially if they have that assisted deposit and really stretch themselves with the mortgage.

Aberdeen = oil

London = financial services

Just about the only two industries doing really well with sky high wages.

Everywhere else is struggling or just ticking over. I have skilled men in my house doing a great job on bathrooms right now and they have all had periods of unemployment over the last year. Several others over the last few months have said their hourly rate has not gone up in 10 years and the amount of work they are getting is less.

Its really a very bipolar economy.

We are in SE London. Absolutely mental. In Feb 14 3 bed house costs the same as 4 bed did in November.

How come London is teeming with people who can afford those 800K houses in SE London???? Who the hell are those people? Especially people at viewings didn't look like super rich foreigners newspapers speak of!

SE London here, and yep completely nuts. We bought 7 years ago and stuff is now selling (very quickly) for over twice what we paid.

Would not be able to afford to buy here if I was buying now. I do worry how DC are ever going to afford to stay in London should they want to. Can't see prices coming down there - demand currently outstrips supply so everything for sale gets racked up a notch and still gets snapped up.

Crazy

hyperspacebug - in general round here it's two income professionals with very high flying careers who've sold one or two smaller flats in previously more desirable areas.