Houses wildly overpriced near me and NOTHING is shifting

[toffeeapple45]

My parents are house-hunting at the moment in the area close to me, and it's so frustrating. They've sold, but literally every "downsizable" house in my area is on for genuinely I would reckon about 200,000 more than they're worth. I think 2022 was about the peak in my area, but these prices look as if prices had carried on tracking up for the last four years. We're in an area that boomed during WFH, but is not going to do so well as people are ordered back to the office - which is certainly not reflected in the pricing. Nothing is shifting at all, and it's only going to get worse with Iran. Houses are going off the market and coming back on for sometimes, insanely more. It feels like people got their houses valued in 2022 and are just never going to accept that the market isn't there any more. I'm irrationally annoyed with one local estate agent who tells everyone their house is worth X when it's just clearly not the case. My parents accepted less than they would probably have got in 2022, because they figure that is what their house is worth now - and they can rent for a bit and they'd rather not be in a chain. GRRRRR.

Well that's the closest to what you've asked:
Slightly more than 20% of women born in 1958 were in full time employment 10 years after birth of their 1st kid.
So 80% of households were single-income.
And still % of homeowners was at least twice higher.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45084530

long story short, looks like my mother may be moving to Bath.
What areas would you recommend if the following things are on her wish list:

-3/4 bedrooms
-small garden, patio fine
-easy walk to Abbey/centre (max 25mins)
-nice neighbours with community
-a corner shop for milk within walking distance

doesn’t care about schools, obviously. Happy to drive to big supermarkets and doctors.

budget 1.2- 1.5.

(I’d rather she stayed where she is, didn’t pay all that stamp duty, remained where everyone knows her and would do anything for her, near us, but… bee in her bonnet. I’m hoping that the sort of thing she’s after will be above budget and she’ll stay put!)

thank you!

Oh bollocks. Sorry, wrong place. Will try and move it.

Thanks that’s interesting
but again Nothing to do with single people buying properties when rates were at 17%
The attachment doesn't even say if they are single

I too can’t find anything that backs up the pps claim. I Appreciate you searching though.
Im assuming at this point that fact simply doesn’t exist

There's not much we can do other than collectively adjust our expectations.

🤣🤣🤣
light relief
id leave it

There is no question that your right. Its much harder now and I say that as an almost boomer generation.

However its still not the fault of people born when they were born. History is history, you can't change the past. My generation also had University course fee's free. Thats another stinking unfairness on people born later...

I'm sure prices are going to adjust significantly, just try to be patient and focus on getting yourself into the most advantageous position you can.

@BrownTroutBluesAgain What I really meant (in my head) was a single-income (single-earner) household. People married very young back in the day so single person buying back then was highly unlikely.

Agree for women
just under 70% by age 25 and 80% by age 30

So masses weren’t buying up properties on their own then 🤷‍♀️

Women didn’t even get financial freedom from their husbands and fathers until 1975. The idea that masses of them were buying up property on their own after just getting an account in their names also debunks the idea.

Tell me you're a downsizer without telling.
1-2 years on the market without reducing the price.. listing on and off for 7 years...
These houses are not for sale really.

Exactly, and these are the people that make the market, the kite flyers just forever sit on the sidelines.

@BrownTroutBluesAgain I don't see 'boomer bashing' here. It can be a problem sometimes but I have seen just as much, if not more, bashing of Milennials and Gen Z online.

What people get frustrated by is when older people deny that it was easier to buy property decades ago, when they tell younger people to just work harder and stop moaning, etc, when the idea of removing SDLT specifically for downsizers is raised and when older people become angry and don't even want to consider the fact that older generations have been the particular group who have benefitted from favourable government policies, which has progressively disadvantaged younger people, and that a change needs to be discussed and considered.
The current tax system and high house prices undoubtedly reduced productivity in the economy, disincentivices work, reduce mobility, misallocate capital into housing, meaning that families have far less £££ or $$$ to spend on goods and services in the rest of the economy, is one factor that has led to the huge increase people not working and in MH problems. We also have a demographic problem, alongside many other concerns.

I am pleased to see that you have acknowledged the fact that property prices are far higher relative to incomes now and that it was far easier to buy, even on one salary in the past.
Also pleased to see that you are against additional special reductions in tax for older people.
We are in agreement on those points. As to house prices, I think they will correct.

UK pensioners still have some of the lowest incomes of all European pensioners.

The triple lock was brought in because the state pension had diminished to such a level that it wasn’t sustainable. Even now after a decade or two of “protecting” the level we still have a third of pensioners living in fuel poverty.

The fact that there is a cohort of better off, largely MC and MC former public sector workers doing nicely on gold plated pensions does not make this the norm for most pensioners dependent on the state pension after 50+ years of NI contributions. Most private pensions just top that up by < 5k per year.
And guess what? The following generations of MC public sector workers continue to benefit from gold plated pension models and will be in that cohort when they make it to retirement age, despite not entering the workforce until well into their 20s in many cases.

This lazy identity politics kills any serious policy debate. “Boomers” are not rich, poor or anything else - some did well, others did not, just as in every other generation. Workers reach peak wealth at the point of retirement in every generation - hardly a difficult concept to understand.

Oh this old chestnut.

My DM used to complain that the censuses taken when we were children had her listed as a housewife/home duties and so from the census you would assume we were a single income household.
My DM like every other woman in our community still worked, usually a patchwork of jobs which easily added up to full time but wasn’t considered “proper work” by the census/surveys because women’s contributions were routinely ignored after they were sacked for being pregnant/having children. It was also entirely normal for people to take on second jobs to top up the main income. Oh and of course no maternity pay, no free child care, routine discrimination in the job market and exclusion from company pension schemes.

Full time work in most of these surveys was a euphemism for men’s work or a profile of work considered normal for men.

UK pensioners have lower incomes than some other countries because they contribute less to their pensions.
The triple lock was brought in to encourage a large demographic group to vote Tory. Of course there are some very poor pensioners, plenty of them in some places. However, as a group, they are the wealthiest group in society. In the past, they were the poorest group. More children now live in poverty. And yet, there are multiple universal benefits for pensioners. The system clearly needs a rethink because things have changed.

Things said on here
-Old people have caused low U.K. productivity
-Old people on here want to be exempt from stamp but just them

These are the two I remember
both debunked as untrue

re my agreements on various aspects. One for example
At no point did I say there should be discriminatory policies. People didn't read my posts and comprehend correctly.
Thats on them 🧐

Nothing to do with the pandemic, that was just used as an excuse to print more money, the rates were cut in response to the meltdown in 2008, and before that there was very loose lending with people lying about income, overtime etc. to get property loans. The house price rises of the more distant past were based on wage rises, they are not going up from here, interest rates will be going up though.

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statistics/uk-interest-rate-history-graph/

I think you are right on the correction, the bottom layer of the pyramid has a lot less borrowing power now.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/38719994/mortgage-calculator-repayment-interest-rates-soar/

People just slap 100K on top of Covid prices and think they are good to go. I've double-checked if they are with the same agency but no.

https://www.mortgagefinancegazette.com/lending-news/buyer-demand-falls-13-as-war-rattles-nerves-zoopla-30-03-2026/

@KeepPumping This calculator says that when the interest rate hits 6%, my mortgage will be almost ×2 my rent. What's the point of taking the mortgage if the house prices will keep falling, and I see no increase in rent in my area at the same time.
My friends even got discount for the rental that was impossible 1 year ago (I think bc immigration also has fallen significantly in the last 1.5 years and will keep falling).

Interesting points, the immigration drop is very big I believe, Reform will be panicking because their main Vote For Us! issue is already being resolved it seems, there is a noticeable increase in flats for rent, probably because of this drop. Mortgages will be more than rent as interest rates rise because rent is driven by wages not debt markets. Little point in taking the mortgage unless you want to live somewhere without the possibility of eviction (much harder to evict now though) or you think you have found your dream property (as prices fall the demand will pick up and there may be other buyers in competition with you)

@KeepPumping there's a long way for prices to drop, in my area it looks like every house starts it's way on Rightmove at 10-15% above the Covid level. And Covid was the time of 0 stamp duty and almost 0 interest rates.
We have 3 streets where almost every other house has an ex-rental flat for sale, but noone is buying.
To be fair, I just realized the agents do the same with rentals - they start to advertise above the market average, and if there're no takers, lower the price every 1-2 weeks.

Yes, a lot of people seem to be oblivious to the effect of interest rates on their house value. I think we have entered a new phase though, the ME is escalating, the days of zero rates are way behind us in the rear view mirror.

It also looks certain we will now suffer not just increased interest rates and borrowing costs but also another cost of living surge.
Leaving prices way out of line with affordability. Looks like getting very bleak for selling property.