Anyone else waiting for the property crash, that doesn't seem to be coming, to buy?

[MsConfused123]

Really can't face buying at the top of the market AGAIN, our next house HAS to be our forever home. Surely there has to be a correction, if not a crash looming at some point? Any tips/MN forecasts?

If its your forever home it doesn't really matter if you buy at the top of the market (presuming you are selling another property).

I've no forecast.
We bought at a bad time. Then at an ok time.
All I wanted to say is that I had to adjust my mindset and consider the house as a home and make sure we could afford it. Sounds corny but otherwise I couldn't have made any decisions.
After we had bought I try and avoid looking at rightmove. I really like where we live now and don't ever want to move.

Don't try and time a market. If you buy your forever home and the value drops by 20% the moment you move in what does it matter?

Prices in much of the country haven't moved for years and so inflation adjusted are at their cheapest levels for a long time. London/SE has huge demand (OK so maybe super prime has dropped but that doesn't apply to most of us!) and ever more people wanting to buy, plus low interest rates set to stay for the foreseeable future. Doesn't look like the recipe for a crash (yet) so if you wait 5 years, have more HPI they could then crash back to today's levels while you've been paying rent rather than reducing a mortgage for 5 years?

Of course I could be wrong but like anyone else who gives an answer, it's a pure guess!

A good friend looked at me like I was an idiot when I bought my house. She kept talking about a crash. The crash came, my house was ok. Then she talked about a further crash and refused to buy until it happened. This went on for years and all the time she was paying over 1k per month on rent. She has just bought a house. I wonder if she knows she has paid £100,000 more than she would have when I bought, not including all the rent she has paid in that time. Don't try to play the market if you love the house and want to move go for it!

Agree with the pps; if you are buying your forever home and can afford the mortgage repayments it really doesn't matter to you how the market fluctuates over the next 10/20/25/30 years. There is only one way prices are going in the longer term, and that is up.

As others have said first and foremost it's a home, a place to live. If you plan to stay what does it matter. My mum says when they bought their first house 20 years ago they never ever thought they would sell it for 4x what they paid. Same as I had a friend sell at what she thought was the peak to go into rented and wait for the crash. Silly woman, the prices kept going up. The crash happened and houses were still more than she had paid, they are stuck in rentals now as they don't have the disposable income to save the bigger deposit needed for these prices and all the money they "made" has been lost on multiple moving fees and high rents.

Houses will continue to go up, there maybe dips, but viewing a house like the stock market never did anyone any good.

We have come into some money and are looking to buy 2019/20 so we can save a bit more and get the most out of these Help to Buy ISAs we've just opened. But I'm in greater London and I honestly despair- I wonder what house prices will look like in 3 or 4 years here now when even very normal 3 bed terrace houses like my parents in nice but not fancy areas are going for £400,000.

If it's your forever house, what does it matter?
A house is only worth whatever anyone will offer, no matter what the EA value it at.

If you are planning to be in it long-term, it makes no difference when you buy. Negative equity is only a problem if you need to move.