Is now a good time to buy a house?
House prices now offer better value than they did a year ago.
Gazundering has been a known term in the mainstream press; this is when buyers drop their bid at the last minute.
But, does all of this mean that it’s a good time to buy?
Well, considering the trend is downwards my answer would be no.
House prices have a lot further to go.
You only need to look at Gordon Browns latest set of incentives to entice new buyers into the housing market.
If the trend was not down then why would he spend government money in that way.
Personally I’m going to wait for a while before I dip my toe into the market again and I don’t think I’m going to be alone.
Should you build new or buy secondhand?
Many people have a dream of building their own home in a perfect location built to their own bespoke specification.
Surprisingly very few millionaires, at least according to Thomas Stanleys book “The Millionaire Mind” actually do this. Instead they prefer to buy older homes in established neighbourhoods.
The reason they do this is because if you build a £1 million home how do know that it is actually worth £1 million. Many projects, building projects are no exception, overrun in terms of cost and time.
A hardened business person knows the value of money and subsequently prefers to buy in the housing market dips!
How low will UK house prices fall?
The house price crash is upon us. If you bought at the height of the housing market craze then you will probably be looking at a loss on your house purchase. Some analysts, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicting further falls of 20%. My bets are on a further 15% fall before the market finally stagnates. In real terms it will take a further 8 years for those who bought at the height of the recent boom to recoup their money. I’m not basing this on anything other than my own personal view which I arrived at after reading lots of articles about the subject for the last few years. Given that all the economists have been wroong up until now I quite fancy my chances!