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?

[noddyholder]

A lot of landlords are subsidising their tenants atm

[zippitippitoes]

ah the other factor in my case and i doubt im unique is that iw ouldnt be able to get another mortgage in the current climate

[traceybath]

Some people are a bit umm greedy though. We're currently in rented having sold in march (only a 2 bed so we didn't make millions).

However saw another 2 bed for sale for £400k (near bath so nice location but tiny) - i phoned up agent as assumed it had planning for extension. Oh no - the owner (who was a developer) thought it was worth that. I just laughed as did the estate agent.

I do feel for people who are stuck with huge mortgages and declining prices but realistically i'd also like to think my children may one day buy a house and that wouln'h happen if prices kept going up so much.

[selby]

We've relocated numerous times in the last 10 years for jobs and have bought and sold twice before. We're not sentimental with regard to property and have always priced competitively to sell quickly and have always managed to do so in the past. This time round has been very different - we did price with the falling market in mind and we had plenty of viewings - surely evidence that we got it right? And since we believe that we can afford to sit it out for a few years, that's the decision we've come to take. Unfortunately, even I wouldn't want to buy atm and in my part of the country, it's definitely more expensive to buy than to rent. I'm paying 1500 pcm rent but a mortgage payment for the same house would be at least double that despite decreasing prices. We moved to an area with excellent state schools so I really cannot see house prices falling 50%. The rental market has not exactly flooded in the last 5 mths that I have kept my eye on it - good family homes for rental are snapped up pretty quickly and we're in the position to experience it atm both as landlords and tenants.

[fishnet]

I think there are still hundreds out there who just don't belive prices will come down much. We have friends who are splitting up and who have had their house ont he market for 18 months. Barely a viewing. Had it revalued a couple of weeks ago at £25 less and so now have it on at £5k more than its been valued at so that they can drop it £5k. They only have £10k equity left in it but are persuading themselves that it will now sell and the prices won't drop any further. They'd be better off IMO just getting rid and walking away with no equity since at this rate they'll be in negative equity and will end up owing money on it.

We're in rented and looking to buy but wouldn't consider offering over 80 per cent of the price since we don't want to pay over the odds and clearly prices are still falling.

Its so true that so many sellers are being greedy. They seem to think they have an entitlement to have doubled their money. five years ago they'd have been dleighted to have £500k for their house that is now on the market for £850k

[nkf]

But if there's only £10k equity in it, they're already selling at a loss once they've paid the estate agent.

I don't think it's greed exactly. Any more than it's meanness to want to pay less.

[expatinscotland]

I wonder if it's not so much a buyer wants to pay less, however, as that they really cannot pay what a seller believes he/she should get.

We're renters so not in the market to buy.

But was talking to DD1's HV yesterday and she and her husband, a skipper, were thinking of perhaps buying, but as she said, 'You just can't get the mortgage for what people are asking.'

Well, you can't get blood out of a stone.

[ihatebikerides]

House near us came on recently for £850K - about 200K above the ceiling price in the road in my opinion but had been done up to an expensive (but hideous, imo) degree. Locals didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 2 weeks later it had dropped to 795 and now, a month on has dropped again to 695. Still well over-priced, I reckon.

[OneLieIn]

We have just sold (subject to damn contracts) and I think we have done OK - sold with a 15% reduction from hte initial asking price and we are happy with that. Next year, we believe it will be worth less and also other houses coming onto hte market do seem to be priced lower than we have sold ours for.

[fishnet]

mortgage rates have come down a fair but already though and still prices are falling. We were about to buy in May and the best mortgage for us was 7.19 per cent. Now we can get 5.25. Still will only buy if we get at least 20 per cent off otherwise the house will be worthy less next year than we pay for it now and who in their right minds wants to take on a mortgage that is bigger than it has to be.

One of the houses I like was on for 825. Now been reduced to 650. Another was 725 now 550.

I do feel for those who are in difficult positions and have to sell but they do need to be realistic and take off the blinkers.

[ShePeeTeePee]

Just still not seeing drops like that where I am. Houses just sitting on the market, but the asking prices are not moving (not the published ones anyway).

[expatinscotland]

that is what is happening here, ShePee.

[noddyholder]

Asking prices starting to look very silly though esp as houses just sit Just because they ask a certain price doesn't mean an area is immune it means the agents are deluded or have lied to get the instruction.

[fishnet]

We are seeing big drops such as those I mentioned but there are also still a lot of houses that have been on the market for over a year and haven't moved their price at all. Its silly really because I suspect a lot of them would now accept a lower offer but they will be putting people off because if they dont drop their price it makes their house look expensive.

There is a bog standard newish 5 bed house (2 decent sized beds, two singles and one tiny box room) with a small garden overlooked by other houses from all angles for sale at the end of our road for £750k. For less money you can buy a six bed edwardian "gentelemen's residence" in a nicer area of town with a half acre garden backing onto open countryside. I think I can guess which most people would rather have.

[ShePeeTeePee]

Silly indeed. Just don't understand why the Estate Agents don't appear to be trying to drum sense into sellers. Are they sitting it out waiting for the opposition to go bust before they start actually selling again?

[Upwind]

ShePeeTeePee - I think WWW was right earlier, estate agents have been so used to the boom years they have got out of the habit of doing actual work!

[noddyholder]

I think some agents are advising clients to go lower but the few agents I know say they are still thinking they can get something close to last summers prices.

[Chocolateteapot]

Things have dropped here generally though there are some people that were on last summer and have reduced a little but nowhere near enough.

But I noticed an article in our local paper a couple of weeks ago with one agent being quoted as saying that prices have fallen 10-15% and another said 15-20%. New houses coming on are generally at a more sensible price and a few things are now starting to shift.

[fishnet]

The new house prices are a good indication of the true state of the market since the big builders have more leeway to drop the prices and do not let persoanl feelings about the property influence their pricing decisions in the same way.

Again, some new houses in our area were on for 750 at the beginning of the year and now on at 625.

Repossession flats are going for amazingly low prices around here since there are just so many of them.

[expatinscotland]

Building has stopped on 2 new-build projects around here.

One house down the road was completely built and due to be bought, but sale fell through as buyer wasn't able to flog their other house.

The house next to it isn't being built at all, the foundations are just sitting there. Work's stopped.

[Upwind]

It is impossible to know what new houses are really being sold for - around here they are advertised for silly money, but when you click on the ads you see they are offering all kinds of incentives: 25k discounts, fixtures & fittings, trade ins for former homes, special mortgage deals (at excellent rates). Rumour has it that if you talk to the people in the show rooms you can get really substantial discounts.

[MrsTittleMouse]

I read somewhere that it takes 10 seconds for someone to believe that their house has increased in price, but 10 months to accept that it has decreased in price. I suppose that we've had a boom for so long, that it's come as quite a shock. We've seen several places here that are chasing the market down - one has dropped the price by £35,000 (a 3 bed semi in a quiet road) and still isn't selling. If they'd dropped the price by £15,000-£20,000 last summer I reckon it would have sold, but it's still on the market now, and the impression that I get from the estate agents is that no-one is even viewing.

[expatinscotland]

a lot of new builds up here offer no stamp duty, but you wonder if they don't just build the cost of that into the cost of the house.

[ShePeeTeePee]

Good points about the new-builds - but short of posing as a keen buyer I can't work out what's happening here. I do know they're not exactly selling like hot-cakes though.

[nkf]

No stamp duty is just a way of reducing the price but not calling it that. And people think "oh good, something free." It's part marketing, part price reduction.