Propery prices falling so why won't sellers budge?

[nkf]

If you want to move, it makes sense to sell. Right. And on paper, it can be a good thing because the gap between house 1 and house 2 might be less if prices are falling. But although people know that, they won't drop their asking price. I know at least two people who are desperate to sell. Need to leave London but they won't drop the prices significantly. What are waiting for?

in 1991 there were hardly any houses on the market because prices ahd fallen

and interest rates were 12.5 or more

maybe it is the same thing now many of the houses that appear to be for sale are merely there through apathy and the sellers have abandoned the idea and have no intention to sell unless they get the price they want

so same situation as 91 for buyers but it appears there are all these houses avialable

Unless you can drop you will(according to the council of mortgage lenders) be looking at 2016 before prices return to 2007 levels with the trough being about 2011/12.Rises after that should track inflation and not much more if we don't want arepeat of this.People who had houses on for 300-325 in brighton last year could have got 280-290 if they had accpeted it Now they will be lucky to get 250 and next year who knows.This winter will see huge falls I'm sure.

well people selling want the best for their families too

it is a bit of a stand off

so un less you are forced to sell taking a ridiculous offer is nto going to happen

the buyer is fariad of offering too much and the seller is afraid of accepting too little

no point accepting too little and not being able to buy or pay off mortgage

eventually the market will settle

but its foolish to sell until you have confidence

what is a ridiculous offer though?An asking price is a figure plucked from thin air by agents who are nothing but salesmen with at times an appalling lack of knowledge about finances etc.The property market has always done this it is just that this time the rises have been so silly that people think it it their right to make 1000s and see it as a cash pile but it isn't Unless you are a developer it is supposed to be a home

a ridiculous offer is one which other similar properties would never be sold at unless the owner was in a forced sale

ie bankruptcy divorce death duties etc

"...but its foolish to sell until you have confidence"

I don't think there will be confidence for a few years at least, because it will take along time for the market to stabilise. And I do intend to buy anyway in the next couple of years for largely emotional reasons, we just want a secure home where our dc can establish friendships and feel settled. When we do buy I expect that prices will keep dropping, but the sharpest falls will hopefully have been priced in to our purchase. I don't think we will be able to have confidence that we are doing the right thing.

From a seller's perspective, it depends on the reasons for selling. The ones who do will either be pragmatic or without a choice (death, divorce, debt..). There are always forced sellers but when prices are falling nobody is under so much pressure to buy. IF you think prices will keep dropping for a few years you are best selling now rather than chasing the market down. But nobody has a functional crystal ball and without one you won't be able to have confidence you are doing the right thing.

an offer is an offer in my experience.If a house isn't selling it is too expensive,.I just wish the falls would happen quicker so that things can stabilise and get back to normal.

no if you trade up then it is worth waiting for the house prices to fall to the bottom because the more expensive houses loses more

We have bought and sold a few houses in our time. We always price them to sell quickly so we can move and get on with our life! None of ours ever took more than a week to sell. Our motives were not to get an extra 5K by waiting a few months they were to move house and fast.

Depends on your point of view and if that little bit of extra money is worth the stress and strain. In our case the moves have been because a change in job. If you add the commuting costs and time taken then a drop in price is preferable imo.

Forced sellers will set the markets though.If someone accepts 250 in a road where everyone thinks they will get 300 the 250 will be listed as the last sale on the land registry and this is the guide surveyors use for valuations and banks for mortgages.So a ridiculous offer will become the street bench mark.If a house sells in march for example for 250 no one is going to pay any more than that for the house next door jsut because it isn't a forced sale.iyswim.

I think part of the problem is that even a seller willing to accept that the market is down 10 percent, 20 percent or even 50 percent on last year, would want to see that drop replicated in the purchase price of their next property. Unless you are prepared to sell to rent, or are leaving the country (and actually this bubble is pretty-much global), it is a brave step to make the first move in lowering asking prices if you see no evidence of it happening in the area/property range, you wish to move to. (does this make sense?)

What does seem crazy is that Estate Agents around my way are accepting property onto their books at prices above last year. Obviously they are not selling, and maybe this is where the pressure will start. Percentage commission on lesser sale values are surely better than commission on no sales whatsoever.

if i put a house up for sale then an offer of 50k below the price i was comfortable with would be a heck of a lot

it would take 5 years to earn that for a start

quite poften people buying and selling treat houses as monopoly money

somehow they dont realise that on both sides finances are finite

so knocking off or adding on arbitrary sums isnt the way forward for a lot of people

People are just not able to qualify for the huge mortgages and multiples they were in the past.

So many of them are not 'cheeky chancers' but what they offer is what they have got to spend.

'but its foolish to sell until you have confidence '

Goes back to my earlier point that if a seller isn't willing to drop the price then they must not really or need to sell.

Maybe they don't have a mortgage on the home anymore, own it outright and just wanted to see what they could get to move to someplace warm or that.

Who knows?

There will always be repossession for those who just didn't want to come down in price even though they knew the wolf was round the corner from the door, and cash buyers who are able to buy such properties.

i agree expat they arent selling because they dont feel obliged to at the moment

very few peop;le end up happy buying and selling houses ime

It may be 5 yrs salary equivalent but that is not something people take into account when offering.What people don't seem to realise atm is that this crash is like all the others before it and prices are falling and that is a fact.In a falling market and recession if you have to sell you tend to lose so as others have said you need to stay put otherwise negatve equity is a ral possibility.Whatever way you look at it people who bought after 2005 with abig mortgage are likely to be in trouble soon as prices are due to fall back to 2003 levels.

It may be 5 yrs salary equivalent but that is not something people take into account when offering.What people don't seem to realise atm is that this crash is like all the others before it and prices are falling and that is a fact.In a falling market and recession if you have to sell you tend to lose so as others have said you need to stay put otherwise negatve equity is a ral possibility.Whatever way you look at it people who bought after 2005 with abig mortgage are likely to be in trouble soon as prices are due to fall back to 2003 levels.

Zippi - yes of course. But what if although you accepted 50k less, your next house was 80k less than at peak price? It's just where to start.

Anyone who has bought recently is unlikely to be in a position to trade-up, but I wonder how many there may be who bought 5-10 years ago on traditional 3.5 type salary multiples who may be in a position to move up the ladder as the next rung comes down in value.

We are looking to buy at the moment but are in no hurry. If the perfect house comes up we will buy now. We are getting lots of notifications of reductions on certain houses from estate agents though.

The thing is for those who are totally stuck.
sorry to go on about my sister but it really is looking like the ONLY way forward is for her to move into rented accomodation and rent out her house.
She would be staying put if it hadn't turned out that her husband is a pervert!
Those who are wanting to buy a house are IMO in a different position to those having to sell.

I can't understnad why anyone would want to sell in this current climate it is horrid.

I also feel for those who want to buy but the market has been silly recently. I thank my lucky stars everytime I think about it - that I managed to buy a house for £30k (albeit 10 years ago) otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford a house, (I could barely afford that at the time)

The problem is that people keep saying this is a bad time to sell as if by some miracle prices are going to reverse.People think buyers are waiting in the wings for banks to lend again when in relity the banks are waiting for price falls so that what they do lend is lower risk.Banks are lending just not at the levels they were. The rental market is becoming flooded because of this

I actually think this is probably a good time to sell, considering prices are likely to keep dropping for a few years yet. You would be selling not too long after the peak in prices.

But buying or selling a home is not just a financial decision - so we will hopefully be buying before the best time to buy comes along, not that it will be easy to work out when that will be.

it is a bad time to sell because the market is unpredictable job security is unpredictable there is no confidence from lenders or a buyers or sellers

so sales are collapsing

I suppose there are no forced sales yet. Just people who would like to move but who can afford to wait.

I think the market is fairly predictable actually it is only going one way.Upwind is right you could sell now at a 10% drop from peak if you start at that price.Next year it will be more like 20% from peak so better now than at the bottom if you price well.

Yeah, it's when the forced sales hit that reality just might.

Dunno, though.

My dad buys houses at auction in the US.

There's a lot on sale around here but nothing selling, but because this is a retirement area it's likely most own the home outright so don't really need to flog it on.

I know our landlord owns this place outright.

He got it back in the 1980s are part of a divorce swap - he swapped a house he had elsewhere for this one.