House prices near you

[iloveaglassofwine]

We're in the process of remortgaging with another lender and so I had a chat with the local estate agent last week about what our house would be valued at.

They remembered the house from when we bought it and suggested it would be valued at what we paid for it two years ago. We're not moving and in many ways, it doesn't really matter - other than we could have got a better mortgage rate, but it just made me wonder about whether house prices really have increased as much as they say or is it more likely that asking prices have but actual sold prices haven't.

I know London and much of the south east is another story and prices really have shot up. We're in the North West, in what many would say is a desirable location (although to me it's just "home") so is it the same across much of the country - house prices are pretty much static?

In my area, asking prices have come down a bit say 5-10% which is nice but it's matter of right property for right person... What has made a nice change is the feeling of not being rushed, before when we rung agents up we had to tell them everything to get a viewing, now they email & ring us with available houses as I believe they are getting less viewings/offers per listing.

anyone knows what's happening in Essex, I wonder? brentwood especially.

We paid £220k two years ago. DH recently had a few weeks of madness in which he wanted to move to a gigantic detached new build abomination, so we got valuations. They offered us £230k for it part-exchange, but we'd probably get around £240k (maybe a wee bit more) on the open market.

Luckily he's come to his senses and realised that we live in a nice house in a lovely area that is convenient for everything. So we're going to stay.

We're in the NE, by the way.

Zoopla claims our house is worth £247,500. Zoopla is wrong. It claims one of the (very similar) houses further up the street is worth over the stamp duty threshold. That is just silly talk.

We're in Warwickshire and prices have gone crazy. Houses the same as our £250k semi (what we paid 3 yrs ago) are now going for £290-300k. I think part of it is because of a housing shortage but it really is crazy.

We are SE, just gone on the market for OIEO 600k, we paid 365k in 2010. Crazy prices for a 3 bed semi.

We are half an hour on the train into London though.