SURVEY : As house prices are falling how many of you are seriously tempted to sell, wait for the big fall and then BUY BUY BUY when market reaches rock bottom???

[drosophila]

Seems the logical thing to do but still I am not inclined. Interested to hear other views......

wow!I also disagree about areas.I offered 27% off a 3 bed victorian terrace in lovely road good schools etc in brighton which is very desirable and it was accepted although i pulled out as knew i could get a better house later in the year.It is still for sale.

OmG that's amazing, hf! What's that as a percentage! it's all a bit like a dream, isn't it. People keep saying it's a bad time to buy, but then again, some sellers are so fed up, panicked, house on market ages etc that they may well be accepting mad offers which are about the same as they will drop to in a year's time anyway! And won't there be fewer houses on the market anyway, soon, when everyone gets fed up and gives up and takes them off the market?! What if we can't find the perfect (ha ha) home cos no one's selling!!
(Hi again, Noddy, my parallel house obsessed friend!)

23% off the asking price. V excitied!

No I wouldn't. Isn't it people playing the property game (or thinking they're playing it) that has caused the problems over over-inflated house prices? Buy a house to live in it a a home.

I did sell last year at teh peak of the market, and am watching it very carefully. But as I only have half the money (divorce split), it would have to fall a long way before I could afford to buy.

We sold for asking price at the beginning of the year before the prices rally started to slide and are now going into rented. But if you didn't do it then then I think others are right and it is too late. We have been trying to find the dream house for 18 months now. Ninety percent of the properties we considered are still on the market at a considerably lower price. Very very few people are buying. Even if offers are accepted, chains are collapsing everywhere due to the prices no longer being realistic and so they get down valued on survey OR the mortgage rates go up and it makes the move impossible for someone in the chain. House on our street down 25 per cent and still not sold.

If you need to move then you have to just take it on the chin but if you don't have to move then its such a bad time to try to make money out of property.

No w

yes, we've done it

waiting for right time to buy now

Hf, whereabouts are you buying? Brilliant deal, btw!

No, but might consider buying a holiday home at the bottom.

please do, it will drive prices down and then DH and I can buy first home and get out of rental.

there is nothing selling in my area at all.

I'm not tempted.

1. it's a terrible gamble
2. there may not be a major crash - markets don't tend to have big crashes without high unemployment to force people to sell. I personally think that without an employment crisis it will stagnate for ages and then fall a bit - but nothing really major.
3. unless you have a big mortgage you won't save much because rental prices are going to go up by quite a bit (because of the drop in BTL mortgages). You have to deduct x years of rent from your calculations when working out any profit.
4. if you are in a high price bracket the market would have to drop by about 10% just to offset your selling/purchase costs.

The factors are different this time though unemployment is not neccesary when the banks have been lending people earning 20k masses of cash which in reality they could only afford interst only and at introductory rates.We are in a crash atm but people have no concept of it as the silly years lasted for so long.

Don't think I would sell just to make money, but since I have relocated and sold at the beginning of this year, it's different. Feel like a bargain is possible before interest rates go up. If we wait ages for the expected 'crash' then interest rates might be higher and a mortgage might cost us what we saved on the price of the house!

Only read thread title and OP but I think anyone who wants to do this has missed the boat already tbh

we had thought of doing so about 6 months ago, but have since realised the crash has come quicker than we anticipated and we're holding on, will prob extend and stay put tbh

when we got married 2 yrs ago we were being told off by everyone for not buying. i knew the subprime thing was going to be a big issue back then so we rented and rented.

we're renting now still and waiting to buy in another year and half. i have a feeling that's when the best prices will be on. the nicest areas are always the ones that are hit the hardest...but as a rule of thumb st johns wood is always cheaper than south ken.

Just sold ours for really good price - price agreed in january. Moving not to play the market but because we are leaving London for a different life. Thought we had done the hard bit in selling but what I thought would be the easy bit - buying somewhere, is actually proving really hard as people just arent selling. The only houses on the market at the moment are there because of death/divorce/urgent job relocation or are the real dogs that have been on the market for ages for good reasons. Everyone else is sitting tight so really not much around to buy. Feels like buyers and sellers are not moving to see who will blink first.

I am looking for a good house, not trying to buy the cheapest thing around. I don't want to wait and see and live in a cramped place while I'm waiting. I'm not a property vulture. I haven't seen any bargains at all where I'm looking, only horrible, smallish houses are selling for low prices. We are after a four bed detached and they don't go down that much unless you want to buy a new one in a cramped estate with a garden the size of a hankie. If any of you know of a good family house in Cambridgeshire I can buy for little money, feel free to send me the link. I have enough of the alarmists, I work in the media industry and I don't believe most of the hype. It's only making people nervous so there are less good houses on sale. But, hey, prove me wrong and send me the link of a cheap, wonderful house!

The city is reporting daily that this country is in the middle of the biggest financial crisis in years and the housing market will be just one casualty.The reason prices are still high in some areas is because the sellers just cannot believe their money pot is not worth what they think.There are very few mortgages at decent terms the crash is only at the beginning and will be interesting to read these threads in 2009.