Are houses slow selling at the moment?

[Nextdoor55]

We've got our house on the market & we're finding that it is very slow, no viewings at all - went on market about a month.
We live in the sticks & our property is very particular I think with another house attached to it but I'm wondering, are sales slow at the moment?
Anyone else?

Ok. Which part would you consider most trendy? We can have a look at that one if you want.

Yes, I do think we are v likely heading for recession. Alternative would be stagflation or possibly just stagnation for a while but on a downwards trend. There are lots of signs of this and have been for some time. I don't think prices have risen recently in most areas, although there was probably a little burst around Jan-April. Have a look at Otta.proprerty- I may have linked the blog earlier. That records directly from the LR, although the data does lag considerably. There are so many reductions at present, that wouldn't happen in a rising market, even a slightly rising market. I think there's a lot of wishful thinking about falling rates leading to sales picking up, many from estate agents and others whose livelihood relies on this!
If you price your house realistically for your local market and choose a great estate agent, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't sell. Those properties in good condition, priced realistically are definitely still selling in most places.

You don't seem to have had an answer @XVGN! Seems to frequently be the case when it comes down to the nuts and bolts.
I looked at Hackney, which is a trendy area. Using your search, the stats are 309/328 so a tiny percentage STC and masses of reductions. I searched the first page and about half seemed to be reductions. I wondered whether this was just upper end that were reduced but there are also masses of reductions on the last page. Admittedly, I have not searched the other pages so perhaps the middle of the market is selling well! Perhaps the pp is dealing with a very specific area at a very specific range....

^ This is true. You hear a lot of hyperbole (selling fast or nothing selling) and that can typically be discounted even for the trendier parts of East London.

Try watching the UK Property Market Stats Show on YT. That'll give you a more balanced view of what is happening although you can discount all the average prices quoted. The self-claimed statistician is oblivious to the right-skew found in UK property prices.

One telling trend is that sale volumes will now fall off until the end of the year (happens every year).

Why are you so unwilling to believe @bumblebee1000 that properties are selling quickly in the area in which they work? It’s odd to me that you won’t accept any comment that contradicts your own view that the housing market is in trouble everywhere. You even find fault now with the UK property market stats show which you once recommended to me.

I find it easy to believe that certain areas will still be highly desirable even in a stagnant market but I don’t know East London well enough to say which postcodes are currently the most sought after. It’s up to bumblebee to reveal the name of the place they were referring to, if they want to.

My 5 hour weekly admin is proof reading and a bit of typing..I dont get involved in any conveyancing, its just a local job, as am retired now..i would ask my boss next week. we dont cover romford. mostly leyton and leytonstone.

Well you know me Twiggers, I would NEVER ask for a postcode. Some people think I would but they just make poor assumptions.

I explained above. I don't believe any hyperbole - good or bad. And I always ask for evidence either way. You state that I promote the view that the market is in trouble everywhere when I could quite clearly show you posts where I have indicated that some areas are prospering while others are not. You persist in making misleading statements about my posts. You're racking up quite a few now. Why?

Like @rainingsnoring you could easily google the most desireable areas in East London and check the stats. Someone making assumptions would assume you did that and found none hence the radio silence for 3 hours.

As stated above, I do 5 hours a week, proof reading mostly, am retired now. dont get involved with conveyancing etc........I would say that 99% of buyers are young couples who have sold in hackney and stoke newington, they looking for something bigger as have or want to have children and cant afford larger property in current area. Also most have been gifted a deposit from parents or grandparents. property in area where i work is priced to sell, there are a few houses that have sat for over a year as over priced. we cover leyton and leytonstone mostly.

Thank you and thanks for providing the area. I'm not going to do the RM check but I'd love to know the metric they are using to evidence the speed of the market.

Requested by a real life saddo statistician!

Jesus the “radio silence” you & raining snoring are referring to was because I was training a guide dog puppy! Is that explanation good enough for you or would you like a photo??

Good on you. Five rescue dogs for me.

Anyway, Bumblebee and I had a good chat and didn't need any other help, but thanks for the interest.

Good on you too - at least we can probably agree dogs are the best!

I carried on looking into this and all the reports/studies I can find online say that the UK is gradually turning the corner and the economy is predicted to continue growing (albeit slowly) so I’m choosing to believe all of them, rather than you.

That's fair enough. You shouldn't believe any random person on the internet without doing your own research.
The mainstream media/ financial institution reports do give the impression that the UK economy is turning a corner and that everything is fine. However, there's plenty of other data out there suggesting otherwise though. For example, these two in just the past couple of days:
Bregbies Traynor- a huge firm dealing with corporate business recovery
issues red flag alert about increasing numbers of firms in distress:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/BEG/latest-red-flag-alert-report-for-q2-2024/16578287
Full report:
www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/news/press-releases/over-600000-uk-firms-face-financial-strain-amidst-challenging-economic-climate

Ryan Air profits down nearly 50% this year:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj50d6q3jlro

US growth has slowed considerably, now that they have stopped handing out $$$ to everyone constantly. The Chinese are also trying to figure out how to increase their growth again.
I'm not saying that these things will upend the world economy tomorrow, obviously, but the signs are not good going into the future.

For me, it's the crushing level of debt - governmental, corporate and personal. I cannot I understand how that continues to grow exponentially and gets serviced. As the saying goes ... something's got to give. Any ideas?

My favourite economics video is probably this one. It has 39M views. It talks to markets, credit, interest rates, inflation, central banks, etc. It's 10 years old now but I still watch it once in a while to remind me. (I'm open to watching other favourite economics videos if anyone has a suggestion!)

No it’s getting really tight out there.

I don’t think interest rates will drop, especially if this lot start giving out pay rises to people who will spend all of it, and we have yet to have proper utility price rises that reflect the shit state the water and energy markets are in.

there’s a sea wall of problems behind the scenes that will come crashing through because of high interest rates.

that and the dollar is being disempowered as a global reserve. The euro is on its way out too.

'I cannot I understand how that continues to grow exponentially and gets serviced'
I think the answer is it can't! Things have started to give and that trend is set to worsen imo.
I haven't seen the Ray Dalio video. Happy to PM you with some people I follow if you are interested. I fear we have veered way off from the OP's initial question!

@Farting I do think rates will fall personally, and possibly more quickly and more than many anticipate. However, I think that this will be because the problems manifest themselves in a more obvious way in the next 6-12 months. I agree that there are lots of problems which haven't got masses of visibility yet and that they will remain hidden as long as possible. Look at this from Fed chair, Bernanke (he who received a Nobel prize for 'inventing' QE) just before the GFC. No recession, apparently.
www.npr.org/2008/02/27/74992288/bernanke-sees-no-recession-but-big-challenge

For rates to fall, inflation will have to and there’s no hope of that IMO.

2x onions in Waitrose - £1.40 ffs! And they grow in the ground.

De dollarisation is well underway, and when the EU finally finally take russias foreign reserves it’s gonna get super real super quick.

1970’s all over again.

good luck!!

Quite a few properties came on the market after the election at the same time as potential buyers are distracted by the holiday season. Market may pick up at end of the summer. Last year it didn't pick up until boxing day though

Boxing Day there is always a spike in people browsing the Rightmove website. Personally I think that’s mostly a reflection of people being a bit bored after a long Christmas Day, and maybe dreaming of a bigger place to host relatives (or a place of their own to get away from relatives).

I’m not sure this spike in Rightmove views translates into an uptick in actual sales in the majority of cases.

Hi all, hope you don't mind me jumping on this thread! We are at our wits end with very few viewings and no offers so I guess I'm wondering whether it's just a slow & stagnant market, OR we have overpriced ourselves? We're in Norfolk (semi-rural) 3 bed semi. Happy to link the property. What are people's general opinions, because I said to my OH last night that surely if we aren't even getting viewings it must be the price?!

Have you checked on houseprices.io? Your price should probably not be more than their estimate unless you have made significant updates (new roof, extension, etc). It should probably be less because that estimate assumes prices have increased at the same rate as RPI whereas we know that house prices have been flat or falling in most places recently - not increasing at RPI which was over 10% at some times in the last 12mo.

Another useful check is to take your postcode (please don't tell me what that is - you'll get me into trouble 😆) add, say a range of 1 mile - or whatever is needed to get a decent number of properties showing on RM. Turn the filter on to show properties SSTC/Under Offer. Sort by Newly Listed. See what properties have been selling most recently, at what prices and how they compare to yours.

@iloveyoubutilovememore be brave, hold onto your balls, and post the link!