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

I agree with most people, prices should be low so everyone can afford to buy a house, even if it is not their dream house. I believe that it is better buying a house than renting all or most of your life; as renting is money going down the 'drain' and you never have anything to show at the end. Buying a house will at least allow you to leave something behind for your children or close relatives...

It's encouraging to see many people on this site recognising that inflated house prices are not in the Nation's best interest. The only people who really benefit from house prices rising above inflation are estate agents, lenders and portfolio landlords. The rest of us are being duped!

Where so much emphasis is placed on home ownership, to put that goal out of the reach of so many people in society makes no sense at all. Rather than encourage people to build their lives on merit, it places too much emphasis on inheritance and, in a professional capacity, I have frequently seen families corrupted by in-fighting over inheritance money.

Beyond that, people face the over-inflated rental market and have to pay too high a proportion of their income on rent and punitive tenancy set-up and renewal costs.

It's a crazy situation fuelled by greed and stupidity that creates excess competition, pressure and suffering over what is a basic human right. When are we going to wise up and stop our politicians from "leading us down the garden path" to prime their own popularity and political ambitions?

This forum has certainly stirred up some interesting points. I believe that you, first & foremost, buy a home. Whatever the rise or fall of house values, if first time buyers cannot afford that first step, the market will stagnate. As for those of use fortunate to fully own our homes, the critical factor is the cost to move. Lower values mean lower stamp duty & joy of joys, less commision to the dreaded estate agents. Less money to borrow & so on. We accept the depreciation of the second largest purchase in our motor cars so why can't we be more philosophical about housing? Has pure greed entered the equation? The old adage 'never borrow what you can't sensibly afford' might be a better way. Finally I cannot fathom the 'head in the sand' attitude in believing house equity will fund a pension. I can assure you it won't. How do I know? I'm 69 years old with grandchilren who face a bleak future if house values run away again. They need to build up a pension fund as early and young as possible AND service a mortgage.

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..

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.