anyone else looking to buy at moment?

[madeindevon2]

sold house stc for realistic price (at a loss to where i bought it 2 yrs ago) but finding other vendors less realistic in terms of their asking prices at the moment!!
anyone else finding this??
seems people still thinking their properties are worth same as last year and its just not the case realistically also the market is not going up this year either is it...
frustrated!!

OK, am seriously now considering that. Just VERY nervous if this backfires as we cant then re-increase our price and will be able to afford nowt if we do it. I should have added that we could afford surrounding areas if we sell now and this house goes, I just want to stay in the same area. DH is not from round here so doesnt have the old baggage of growing up round here and is a bit more objective.

Will talk to our agent monday...

You can increase but you shouldn't have to, get out of the frame of mind that you're loosing on your current house and start thinking of what you are gaining on the house up the chain, if you drop 10% and they do the same then you've done much much better out of the deal.
Good luck I hope it goes well for you and you find a buyer.

goldenpeach, have you found where you are looking school catchment areas keep prices up?

Heated, it depends on the county. Since we decided to leave London (we lived in East London where there were so many children you struggled even to find a preschool place) we have been looking in different counties and so far Warks and Lincs seem ok in that respect, with no premiums related to schools. Warks has grammar school system but they are pretty flexible in Rugby even locationwise (they are talking of changing rules so surrounding villages are locked out, though), preschool places are abundant, apparently they don't have enough kids, so you can pick and choose and you get more free hours than in other counties. Not sure about Lincs, but they have grammar schools too and the house we saw near the grammar school was not more expensive than houses in other locations. I think location per se (such as a quiet leafy road)carries a premium and the premiums are on detached houses too. My partner checked schools and both Rugby and Grantham areas have very good schools, topping average. My little one is two in April, so you cannot predict what will happen in a few years, though.

Was looking at house price charts last night historical 'real' price about 60K in the last surge they went over 100K (can't remember how much sorry) recent peak was over 180K now just over 150 so if you ask me they still have quite a way to fall!

Other 'problem' round here is that housing associations seem to have decided their role is to bale out property developers and part sell part rent overpriced 'micro' flats aimed at single young people/couples.
Obv. decided families/disabled don't need housing then

We live in a good school catchment area although i heard last week that the catchment area was being moved - again - so that all the children from this area will have to go to the secondary school that no one wants to go to!

Too be fair there is a desperate need for single people/couples type affordable housing and if the HA's want to blow there money by paying the developers top wack then more bloody fool them.
Just don't get sucked in, if everyone holds their nerve the prices will drop, I don't care who you are that is a good thing for everybody.

Anyone considering buying a shared ownership read this www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jan/31/shared-equity-broken-dreams

Is there really Sorrento? surely single people/couples are best placed to fend for themselves in the open market/rent etc whereas families/disabled/etc are in most need of the kind of security a HA can provide. Where I am (London) there is a massive oversupply of single/coupes housing the involvement of the HA is just keeping prices arteficially high and perpetuating the eventual pain.
Also the HA are actually blowing 'our' money by paying top whack to property developers for overpriced crap noone wants so I'm not quite so comfortable with it (aside from the social value of keeping companies going but there again if they've done such poor developments in the past why shoud the taxpayer keep them going?)
I'm just off to read your Guardian bit but judging by the title I agree with it even more reason IMHO why HA shouldn't be doing it

OK read it now it's about service charges totally predictable IMHO however that doesn't help them, I guess they didn't think about what they read in the small print and just got sucked in by the glossy pictures! Bet they didn't anticipate what's going to happen when they try and sell either

Half the problem with this country is that as a single person or a couple you're not important, chuck a couple of kids into the equation and you jump the que and be housed why is that fair ?
And we wonder why so many young girls have babies in this country, if you don't get on with your parents and can't earn more than minimum wage you almost have no choice.
I have no problem with some disabled people receiving all the help they can get, however the only one I know is better off than I could ever dream of, has worked his arse off and fair play to him. He wouldn't entertain a HA property lol

Ah but surely these are families renting semi-comercially a HA property, I still think that singles/couples are much more able to flatshare/sleep on friends sofas/accept worse living conditions/move more frequently etc etc. (of course this is not ideal for singles but I feel it is less so for families.) As a healthy working single/couple I would never have expected priority for state subsidised housing the problem of course is partly the massive bubble that looks like to's going pop and partly what is built where and maybe a little bit wages.
HA should be for the vunerable in soc not as a source of cheap housing (av. age of buying is v.late 20's or 30's now isn't it) or more importantly to mop up shoddy developments. As a business decision re providing homes buying the kind of flats they are round here is v. poor IMHO if however HA now exist to provide financial assistance to struggling property builders/developers then it is the right one. Then of course the taxpayer should be told that is their new remit!

So again I would say if you are earning £200 a week in any big city which is all min wage would leave you with, how do you pay rent, council tax, bills, food and get to work ?
So much is made of hard working families under Labour, what about the rest of society who either want to play fair and not have a family until they can afford one or are not in a relationship.
State subsidised housing either needs to be available to all or nobody.

Well a rough calculation based on earning 230/week gross does give an extra 69 pounds a week benefits (I do agree this is naff all to live on though)
I take your point about hard working singles etc etc but I never said singles shouldn't be allowed to obtain social/HA housing or that such properties ahould be reserved for those with children.
I still say singles are better placed to deal with the probs of sub standard living conditions, do overtime, work 2 jobs etc etc. (Not ideal but the way it has been for most people in the past)

My point is that I don't think HA should be in the business of bailing out property developers nor is it necessarily right for people earning £200 pounds a week to be encouraged to buy a 2 bed 2 bath executive luxary designer bla bla bla property.

That's not to say that HA shouldn't provide property for such groups however I feel if that is what they are in the business of doing they would have built something more suitable.