UK House Price's Back To 08 Level.

[wotsnext]

House prices 'back to 2008 level'


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46480000/jpg/_46480141_007946936-1.jpg House prices are now the same as they were a year ago, says the Nationwide

UK house prices have now recovered to the same level as a year ago, according to the latest Nationwide figures. The average price of a home last month was equal to September 2008, it said.
The building society said that UK house prices rose by 0.9% in September compared with August, the fifth consecutive monthly increase.
Nationwide said the price rises suggested that the worst of the recession was over. But it warned the rate of price increases may now slow.
Remaining cautious
The average price of a UK home rose to £161,816 last month, up from £160,224 in August, the Nationwide said.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46480000/gif/_46480149_house_prices_1oct09.gif
The three-month on three-month comparison of property prices - considered a less volatile measure than the monthly data - showed a rise of 3.8% in the three months to the end of September.
This was up from August's measure of 3.3% and was the biggest reported by the Nationwide since August 2004.
"The further increase in house prices is very much consistent with improvements in a broad range of economic and financial indicators over the last few months, all of which suggest that the most intense phase of the recession and financial crisis have probably passed," said the Nationwide's chief economist Martin Gahbauer.
However, he added that the housing market still faced "considerable headwinds", such as high unemployment and the continuing difficulty of getting a mortgage.
"It would be surprising to see house prices continuing to increase at the very strong rate seen in recent months," he said.
Mr Gahbauer said another reason to remain cautious about the outlook for house prices was that turnover in the market was still well below normal levels.
The Nationwide calculates that housing turnover - the percentage of private sector housing stock changing hands on an annualised basis - now stands at almost 4%. This is still significantly lower than the rate of between 7% and 8% recorded before the downturn in the housing market.
While prospective first-time buyers have been helped by continuing low mortgage interest rates, lenders have been criticised for demanding large deposits, which are still preventing many from getting on the housing ladder.

Now if we can just get back to 07 :roll:

[tea drinker]

Bad news for UK, if it's true. Dunno if I believe it, there are lies, damn lies and statistics, and then housing propaganda.

It says only half the amount of houses are selling that were in 08.
But if more of these are at higher prices for top end stuff (Rich people are still rich!) then that would explain the change in average.

I plan on buying Coronation street for a basket of kittens.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Large numbers of unsold completed developments up here and many more stalled during building. One of the more successful small developers round our way says he is hanging on by the skin of his teeth.

[BritSig]

Good news for this callsign!!

I have 2 houses which i rent out (Plenty of renters who cant afford deposit for mortgage etc) and live in a dirt cheap army quarter. Buying and renting is a strong advantage to being in the forces and i recommend this above saving (especially with interest rates so low, no return on savings.).
Recession does'nt touch the soldier, still get 2 pay raises a year, although i suspect this April will be poor!

Hopefully house prices are rising.

BritSig

[wotsnext]

If I could get a good price for my house I'd sell up and get me a 60' broadbeam built, I'd save a fortune in bills.

[CMNot]

House prices around my way (rural Leicestershire) didn't really drop much and have rebounded a little.

Still lots of bargains knocking about. Same old story with this property:recession business. Money makes money.

[Thom]

I know most of you will have houses, so this will be good news - but for those of us without it's a bit ****. Also what with the economy as it is and how difficult it is to get a mortgage compared to before, first time house buyers are pretty screwed. Of course this is even better for people who are renting their houses out!

To be honest, they were still absurd prices at the bottom of the 'crash', I guess that's what we get for living in a high-density country though!

[CMNot]

Round my way, people were shocked that you could pick up houses for £90,000. For the first real time I was gutted I sank my savings into education, really gutted.

[Hollos]

House prices around my way (rural Leicestershire) didn't really drop much and have rebounded a little.

Still lots of bargains knocking about. Same old story with this property:recession business. Money makes money.Same for my area (cheltenham) my house and my neighbours never went down and r slowly moving upwards again definitely advantages to living in a very rich town, don't no how/or why a working class lad like me can live hear :)

[welshmann]

I know most of you will have houses, so this will be good news - but for those of us without it's a bit ****. Also what with the economy as it is and how difficult it is to get a mortgage compared to before, first time house buyers are pretty screwed. Of course this is even better for people who are renting their houses out!

To be honest, they were still absurd prices at the bottom of the 'crash', I guess that's what we get for living in a high-density country though!

i agree,they asking for what 40% deposits???and the estate agents are under value house just to get sales,prime example,a house by me going for 145k,its a awesome house,mines a ****hole but valued at 160k just because of the gardens i got,less posh flats and more houses we need.

and before any1 says 160k is cheap..u should see the area i live in,got it for 41k 8 years ago.

[sheytanelkebir]

if house prices were valued in Euros or Dollars since the slide in the UK economy, then the real crash would have been obvious.

the £ value of the house is irrelevant if the £ itself goes down the bog.

so even if people boast about their £5,000,000 house, and how rich they now are (without lifting a finger, the house does the "work" for you, like magic, just like a ponzy or pyramid), then such a scheme has ALWAYS collapsed, WILL always collapse, and IS collapsing right now.

You can have the collapse either in the nominal monetary value of the house. i.e. the price goes down.

or you can have the actual currency its bought and secured in collapse, without any nominal drops (in fact you can have your nominal inflation, as much as you want). people with a 10-20 year "fixed rate mortgage" are laughing all the way to the bank. people who own outright, or on a short term deal are f*kced.

all that means is, that your £5,000,000 which would have bought you a huge palace with grounds in Poland in 2007 (and only an average-nice place in knightsbridge), will buy you an average-nice place in Poland of 2015.

the crash is only just beginning.

[CMNot]

If you bought your house for £5000, and its valued at £100k, and decreases to £90k, you can't really chalk that up to being ****ed.

Property markets as a Ponzi scheme though, nice crackpipe analogy. You'd honestly think countries had never seen recession before.

When the UK adopts the Euro, it will still benefit UK homeowners. When you have 60+ million inhabitants and a very limited geographic location, land will always come at a premium.

Far as I can see the crash is not so much a crash as promised by the media as a bit of a wet fart. The painful bit however is yet to come.

[nemowork]

Oh whoopee, now we get to pay the same old overinflated prices for houses while being stuck with a national debt we cant pay off till after they defrost Buck Rogers?

I'm struggling to see the win in all this?

[gaz]

House prices around my way (rural Leicestershire) didn't really drop much and have rebounded a little.

Still lots of bargains knocking about. Same old story with this property:recession business. Money makes money.

Whereabouts in Leicester are you?

[timetraveller]

I seriously doubt what they claim considering in my village there is a few houses that have layen empty for a good many month's now ..

And the number of Office spaces up for rent/lease is ever increasing .. For a Flat that is virtually 5mins from my place of work pcm 799 ..

I can't afford that ...

[CMNot]

Whereabouts in Leicester are you?

Just outside Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

What is interesting about this current recession, in my opinion, is how it has affected areas so differently. There seems to be a lot of work in and around London still, and quite a bit down sarf in general. Up North it looks, well, grim. To coin a phrase p-)

[Hollos]

Just outside Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

What is interesting about this current recession, in my opinion, is how it has affected areas so differently. There seems to be a lot of work in and around London still, and quite a bit down sarf in general. Up North it looks, well, grim. To coin a phrase p-)its always been grim up north :)

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Just outside Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

What is interesting about this current recession, in my opinion, is how it has affected areas so differently. There seems to be a lot of work in and around London still, and quite a bit down sarf in general. Up North it looks, well, grim. To coin a phrase p-)The response my brother gave when my Dad was asking how the recession was affecting him was "what recession", there is has some capital flight as commercial property dropped in price in the London area for a while so the Scottish companies so wanted to be closer to London and the Chunnel managed to make that great leap South that they had so long desired. Saying that it looks like Scotland will attract more financial companies due the slight differences in incorporation laws.

[Ssandro]

if house prices were valued in Euros or Dollars since the slide in the UK economy, then the real crash would have been obvious.

the £ value of the house is irrelevant if the £ itself goes down the bog.

so even if people boast about their £5,000,000 house, and how rich they now are (without lifting a finger, the house does the "work" for you, like magic, just like a ponzy or pyramid), then such a scheme has ALWAYS collapsed, WILL always collapse, and IS collapsing right now.

You can have the collapse either in the nominal monetary value of the house. i.e. the price goes down.

or you can have the actual currency its bought and secured in collapse, without any nominal drops (in fact you can have your nominal inflation, as much as you want). people with a 10-20 year "fixed rate mortgage" are laughing all the way to the bank. people who own outright, or on a short term deal are f*kced.

all that means is, that your £5,000,000 which would have bought you a huge palace with grounds in Poland in 2007 (and only an average-nice place in knightsbridge), will buy you an average-nice place in Poland of 2015.

the crash is only just beginning. (a) No because (i) demand massively out-strips supply for such an area, and (ii) the english genuinely value houses over other asset classes. It's possible that houses in england are over-valued. But only slightly. A medium-sized house in knightsbridge will always be worth something like £5 million, simply because there will always be so much demand for it over a limited supply. This is shown by the fact that even the evaporation of credit has barely made an impact. The high price (i.e. high supply/demand equilibrium) was less a result of our demand for property as a speculative (and therefore fallible) investment based on fallible predictions, but a demand for somewhere nice to live. The supply of nice places to live is extremely fixed in a city like london, especially as you go further and further up the market (only so many houses can fit in knightsbridge)

(b) No because currency rates follow their own cycles, to a large extent independently of the business cycle. The currencies just cycle slowly around what is quite a fixed point. The £ is currently cycling past its low point. If UK joined the Euro, it would join when the currency ratio was nearer its mode.
I remember when the dollar was incredibly low in 2005 and us foreigners extremely rich when on holiday in america. That fact didn't mean that there had been some kind of secret crash in the american assets, just that their currency was on a low point of the cycle relative to my country's.

[tea drinker]

But having massive inflation of assets is not a sustainable policy. The following generations are effectively bankrupt, or a landlord class emerges. Far better to have a house seen as a home, not an asset. I mean - we all have to live somewhere.
A home as an attainable, affordable goal is better for society, as it reduces the chance of the "better off on the dole with benefits class" if housing is affordable to them. Taxpayer has to pay for their expensive accomadation otherwise, effectively becoming a loss making landlord or property developer.





House prices rose for the third month in a row during September, increasing by a further 1.6 per cent, figures showed today.

The average UK property now costs £163,533, 5.9 per cent or £9,000 more than when prices hit their trough in April this year, according to Halifax.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/property/house-prices-rise-for-third-month-in-a-row-1798327.html

Bad news for UK if they want to be competitive - I know you are reducing your exchange rate, but that has to hit a floor. And rise again - and what happens when everyone has those big ol mortgages with cheap money?

[SHAM]

They reckon house prices here in Ireland are back to 2004 price levels.
I myself reckon 1999 would be a good year, these card board boxes they have thrown up during the boom are crap.

[CMNot]

Somewhat bizarely the raft of 'new builds' local to me has pushed the prices of the pre-existing homes up quite significantly. The new houses look like posh council flats built on a postage stamp of land.