Halifax house price index shows a 3.1% fall for April

[Emilie69]

I am ready and able to buy a property as a cash buyer, but I am terrified the market is going to suffer more severe falls in the not too distant future, especially since the Halifax house price index just reported a monthly fall of over 3% for April (which is prime property buying season). I have been looking online, but I don't want to get too tempted yet, since I think I may get more for my money later, or alternatively have cash left over to spend on the property.

There are so many siren voices in the media telling everyone there will be no crash, but they usually have a hidden agenda to support the market. Nobody ever seems to 'expect' the market to fall, just like nobody 'expected' the great financial crisis, but it happened all the same. Does anyone else have this same dilemma - whether to be patient, or go against my better judgment and risk making a big financial mistake?

Everybody does.
Sell now for a low offer or wait until the panic is over and the better weather arrives? Buy now and get a bargain as this is a blip and the market is solid - (demand outstrips supply and borrowing not so highly leveraged as last time). Wait and get a better bargain in a month's time, or 6 month's time??

If it is a business decision that is one thing but if it is a question of living your life then my own view is that I will go ahead with that and move because it's right for me now.

And if knew what the market was going to do I'd be a very rich woman!!!

PaintedHorizons It is a slightly unusual situation because I have seen a nice pice of land with a house to demolish online, and then build a new very special house of my own design. I would already be spending far more than the new house would be worth, but if I could get the original house for 20% off, it would give me enough money to build to a very high quality. Without that 20% off, I don't think I would have enough money for that high quality, and would n't want to do something low quality. I think it would be much too soon to put in a low offer, though, since it only went on the market a couple of weeks ago and it is in a part of the country where houses can take literally years to sell.

I think poor weather has delayed spring bounce but its turned the corner.Some areas are affected more than others, the area I am looking in is pretty buoyant and good properties are going very quickly.

You could try an offer and see what reaction you get.

lifebegins50 I think in this case it is much to early to put in an offer, since the seller is asking 20% more than I would be prepared to pay, and they have only had it advertised for about 3 weeks, so will still have unrealistic expectations. How do you know the spring bounce has only been delayed? Prices in London are still falling like a stone - 40% down in many cases.

But if you're building a new house, I assume you're not planning on moving (ever?).
It makes very little difference to you in the long term what house prices do. It would be nice to save 20% in the short term. But really it doesn't matter as you'll never be affected by them.

Glitteryfrog Yes, it would be a forever house, so I am not particularly worried about house prices per se. But getting 20% off is the difference between being able to building high quality or low quality. I would only want to do it if I could build high quality, so that 20% off would be a dealbreaker. But I doubt the seller would be willing to do that (yet), so I think I will just have to wait while the incoming news softens them up for a deal.