Have your say: are you happy about falling house prices?

i for one would like the property prices to keep falling my husband and myself who both work full-time have no chnace of getting on the property ladder with 3 bed houses going for offers over 130k to 250k and then some .you are looking at a paying back about 1200 per month before any other out goings.
we looked at a house a few months ago in our village we know that they paid65k 6 years ago and went for offers over 145k.i dont know about anyone else but my wages have not went up as much to allow me to be able to afford these inflated price.
it is about time houses were bulit for the majority of people to buy i would say affordable houseing is between 50k and 100k and for people to still have a decent standard of living

{{{{{QUOTE: Lindsay (Greenwich), on 20/08/2008 at 08:20 WROTE

The media has made this situation 10 times worse than it should have been. People are too ready to read headlines and not read the whole article. Get your facts right. Prices have gone down but it really is not as dire as people think - or at least it wasn't. As long as people continue to buy and sell when they want/need to and offer reasonable prices instead of taking the micky - things will be ok - but people are offering ridiculously low prices to combat the downturn and take advantage of people who want to sell. Not everyone who owns property is a fat cat trying to make money - they don't deserve to lose out just because they are on the property ladder and you aren't - for most its been their home and they need to move.}}}}}

Lindsay, I have to complete disagree with you here. They do deserve to lose out as most were stupid and bought into the myth that property prices will only ever go up. There is so much bad debt now due to high borrowing levels that it is damaging the real economy. If house prices halve, which is likely, and if the over borrowed go bankrupt and the banks write off losses, then me may start to see a recovery. But not until this has happened.

On that basis, low offers are not taking the mickey, they are simply pricing in future price falls. Frankly anyone buying now needs their head examining as we are entering recession and price will fall another 35%.

I agree with most of Arun's commments. However Mrs T did the right thing, House prices were high before her time in office and the sale of council houses did not cause the house price spiral. Before her, rental accomodation was virtually unobtainable and when it was it was with criminal landlords in rickety old houses with furniture that even the local junk shop wouldn't sell and usurious rent levels.
Also, house prices spiralled out of control in USA/ Singapore and Tokiyo and they didn't have a council house sale so I can't believe that it caused the house price spiral here.
Such a high proportion of our income being spent on houses is a very bad thing! What can be done to prevent such high levels is a problem. It can not be solved by a nu-lab type solution such as putting a tax on houses(stamp duty). How we cheered this impost when it was introduced! If we gave more thought to such government scheming and shouted about it when it happened instead of thinking that we can pass on the extra costs to the next smuck, then we might be able to get control of this problem.
In conclusion, I would say that blaming everything on Mrs T is rather childish, rather like blaming our failings on the devil as we used to do. It is nu-lab who has caused the current housing probs, just as it was John Major who caused the last lot. Mrs T is blamless in both cases. Also, banning short term tenancies and regulating rents sounds more like a lefty wish dream than serious economics..

hi i was reading the for and against to the property crisis ever thought of swapping your homes much quicker saves agents fees and saves time and even stamp duty savings depending on the deal i will not advertise on here but we have a site low cost to homeowners council tenants and free to estate agents councils etc we swap all types of property in one shop thats a search tip but i agree with a comment made by mark simply says the goverment are to blame for our housing crisis high rents and house prices stopping first time buyers getting a good deal or even no deal some people have a large deposit and still cant get a mortgage read this online review i found Could swapping your home- possibly saving thousands in the process- be the future of the property market?


There has always been something about ‘swapping’ that makes you feel you’ll get a raw deal and when you consider that most of us have never swapped anything more substantial than a sandwich, it is no wonder that the swap ‘phenomenon’ never really caught on.


Another problem with ‘swaps’ is that the choice has always been quite limited…‘I’ll swap my marmite sandwich for your peanut butter sandwich’ was about as exciting as the offers got. Holiday swaps, which seems a very clever idea, comes across as one of those things you would do for the thrill of discovery (good or bad) and the opportunity to snoop round someone elses house. The other popular swap is channel 4’s spectator sport ‘Wife Swap,’ and the only

House prices peaked mid 2007. The spring had finally stretched too far. First time buyers had exhausted all the tricks to buy a property (shared ownership, parents remortgaging, 10x earnings multiples). It had been stretching since 2001 when people looked to property instead of pensions. A house is to live in, not to profit excessively from. My ex-wife used to say "stick it on the mortgage, the house will be worth more the next day. If you get into trouble you can always sell". She's eating humble pie now. That's the approach which has led to excessive demand. The demand not for a home to live in but to make a profit. Well, thankfully no-one buying now or in the foreseeable future is going to make a profit on property. The spring will snap back hopefully to 2001 ish values and then our young people will have a chance own their own homes. Me? Well the divorce court made me sell my house at the perfect time. I have cash in the bank generating interest I can live off, I'm looking at £350k houses but won't buy until they drop to £250k. In the meantime mum doesn't charge rent. I've never had it so good. My next property will be mortgage free, the size depends on how much they drop by. The ex-wife is spitting feathers!

The media has made this situation 10 times worse than it should have been. People are too ready to read headlines and not read the whole article. Get your facts right. Prices have gone down but it really is not as dire as people think - or at least it wasn't. As long as people continue to buy and sell when they want/need to and offer reasonable prices instead of taking the micky - things will be ok - but people are offering ridiculously low prices to combat the downturn and take advantage of people who want to sell. Not everyone who owns property is a fat cat trying to make money - they don't deserve to lose out just because they are on the property ladder and you aren't - for most its been their home and they need to move.

Gordon Brown did not help matters by suggesting Stamp Duty 'might' be scrapped. People are now stalling in case this happens - this will not happen! If anything is changed about stamp duty it will be in months time not next week. I may not agree with it, but I can see tthe government are not going to give it up quickly or easily. If you need to move house go ahead but budget correctly for it - if you can't afford to pay your stamp duty then maybe you shouldn't be looking in the bracket you are looking anyway - look within your budget and don't add to the problem.

They might be dropping considerably nationally, but in London there's very little evidence that they've dropped.

I still can't get on the property ladder despite the fact that I earn a reasonable salary (although I am single) and I've saved a decent deposit - £20,000, which is certainly more than many single first-time buyers manage.

It's looking like I'll never be able to afford to buy in London. I could afford to buy in Kent or Essex, but then would not be able to afford the £200-300 monthly travel costs that I would incur, plus those areas are not practical for me as I need to travel to Berkshire once a week for work.

So I'd love it if house prices were dropping in London ... but they really don't seem to be! The minimal percentage that they have dropped is not enough to make a difference.

Falling house prices are bad for all and especially pensioners as those that need to increase their income, to off set all the price increases, are faced with falling property prices so can not raise as much extra income to help them, from their property.

It seems that the media want to talk us into recession, it is OK for them, they can go to their bosses for a rise, no one thinks of the impact on those on "Fixed" income ( always declining) i.e. Pensioners.

The one thing that seems to have accounted for all this credit crunch in the UK is no deposit mortgages, you should always have a stake in property and not just rely on price rises, there should be incentives for all to save a small deposit. The other thing is, of course that we imported a lot of trouble from the US who don't have the same business standards that we are used too.

Also bear in mind a lot of the problems are being caused by the media hyping the credit crisis. The excessive amount of tax we are paying to get to and from work, especially on fuel. Then there is the case that the banks themselves got greedy with the sub prime mortgages that they tried to make a fast dollar on. So we as a nation are paying the price for the finical miss management of the City and government.

Falling prices where!! houses are still way too expensive.
and yes i own a house.
look on the internet i have not seen any cheap houses of yet. where are they.
Their is such a divide between the well off and the poor.
As for estate agents they should all get the push.
They do very little work they tell lie's and keep you guessing.
please let us know if you know a good one .
I am sure we would love to meet him/her.
As for council housing we need more for our young and the less well off.
They should never have been sold off.