Feeling absolutely battered by the housing market

[boomingaround]

Our house went on the market last august. We accepted a (low) offer last September/October. The buyers pulled out in December having caused considerable stress in the meantime. In January we accepted a good offer from someone else. Only for it to be pulled the day after we accepted it because their chain fell through. We have found one property we wanted to buy when we had accepted our first offer and spent money on solicitors, a survey and searches but have now had to submit school applications to our local school instead so we are now ham strung by the school. We keep seeing things we like then get outbid or even told not to bother by cash buyers (who are all these cash buyers?!). The perfect house came up last week and we fell in love...the same day our second offer fell through. Today we have heard they accepted a cash offer. The market is flat so hardly anything is coming up at the moment and there don't seem to be many buyers for the type of house we have.
Oh and I'm 20 weeks pregnant too. I feel utterly flat and exhausted and strung out by it all. Even sorting the house for viewings is stressful- we have toddlers and an incontinent cat so it takes me hours to sort the house and clean and my husband works away a lot.

It just all feels insurmountable at the moment.

I understand why it feels insurmountable, but it isn't, you will find a way. It does sound like you're having a tough time.

Do you mind me asking why you need to move? Could you shelve the idea for a while?

I could have written your post, add in a failed move in the week before moving as well!!

however last week we got the keys to the most beautiful house that fits every box, and wonderful sellers as well!

have faith it will happen even if it doesn’t feel like it now!

Do you need to move now or could you wait 6-12 months? I really do think the market will pick up after the election and as interest rates fall.

It could equally fall further imo. The costs of borrowing would have to go back to the emergency rates we had after the gfc to really kick off growth again. I don't see that it's possible to do that this year. But never say never I guess.

We need to move (although I know it's not an absolute necessity as we have a roof over our heads) because we don't have a garden here. It sounds a bit dramatic but I feel so guilty that my children don't have outside space and I also would like it for us so that we can have people over in summer and to make parenting easier in summer. At the moment we find we have to get our first thing in the morning in spring/summer as we don't want to be in all day and it really makes parenting harder.

The other reason is that my eldest starts school this summer so we wanted to be settled for her and also to have chosen a school close to our new house rather than the other way round but that ship had sailed a bit.

We are also concerned that our borrowing potential will be limited when I am on maternity leave later this year so we would be limited even further in the house we can buy whereas at the moment I am able to prove my earnings towards the mortgage too.

I'm trying to stay positive and keep hopeful but it feels so hard!

Sounds stressful @boomingaround

The positive part is that your house has sold twice so it must be desirable to buyers despite the generally stagnant market. It seems fairly common for sales to fall through at the moment but you will get there.

@boomingaround did you manage to move if you don’t mind me asking? How’s it going?