Property market, is now the time to buy?

SpeedFreak

SpeedFreak

SpeedFreak

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My wife and I are in a comfortable enough position financially. About 1/3 of our income goes on the mortgage, food and household bills. Our income should rise quite well in the next three years. Currently we have around 50k in equity in our property and are happy enough where we are for now. The plan is to move in about two to three years to a 4 bed home however the current property market is starting to concern me.

I'm not sure if there is much more left in this current slump. Our current mortgage is about 1.75 times our income. My gut is telling me that we should push ahead and double our mortgage now before a 10 to 20% recovery occurs.
Is anybody else in a similar position and if so what are your thoughts?
 
I keep hearing "It's a buyer's market" and that potential buyers are quite happy putting in low offers.
 
If you are buying and selling at the same time, does the market really matter? If prices shot up, you would get a great price on your current house but then pay more for the 4-bed. If prices crashed, you would get a great price on the 4-bed but lose out on your current home.
 
Now is definitely a buyer's market, first time buyers are struggling as they can't get enough of a deposit together. Buy-to-let are consolidating what they have and only going after proper bargains.

The property market is slow enough in most areas that most folk who are selling really have to sell as others are waiting for the market to pickup so you can negotiate better deals.

Depends on if you have enough of a deposit together, or if you'll even manage to sell your current place. The market is tough, make no bones about it. My flat's currently on for £14,000 less than it's valuation (Scottish Home Buyers Survey Report value) and is getting zero interest, so much so we've part-exchanged on a new build.
 
you just cant tell mate, you don't know whats around the corner, im in a similar boat and for me, they keep making savings, cuts and jobs going, so i personally think prices and mortgages deals will come down, as people in general are worse off than 3 or 4 years back
 
mame said:
If you are buying and selling at the same time, does the market really matter? If prices shot up, you would get a great price on your current house but then pay more for the 4-bed. If prices crashed, you would get a great price on the 4-bed but lose out on your current home.
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The issue is that I'll be trading up rather than down and as such the mortgage gap will increase.
 
mame said:
If you are buying and selling at the same time, does the market really matter? If prices shot up, you would get a great price on your current house but then pay more for the 4-bed. If prices crashed, you would get a great price on the 4-bed but lose out on your current home.
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Prices aren't going to change as much during the buying process (average 3 months) in comparison to the issue the OP is considering - whether prices will change drastically over the next 2 years and therefore whether to start buying now or in the future. They certinally do potentially affect him - as buying a property with a mortgage is a leveraged investment and as he's considering moving up then a rise prior to him selling his current house and buying a larger one will hurt him.
 
Buyers market now but houses still over valued by about 20% and a massive slump is still forecast by a lot of people. Whether it arrives or not is debatable.

However, I can;t see things improving much over the next 3 to 4 years. Interest rates are forecast to increase very soon.
 
The only thing I may consider is waiting to see the effect of an interest rate rise. This will be the pivotal moment as the market is still in a poor shape and rate rises will potentially reduce prices further.
 
Report I read last week was predicting -10% over next two years.

Property prices are still too high, will they correct or stagnate is the big question.
Regionally it varies though some are down some are up for last 3 months but that can correct the next quarter.

Interest rate rises will take another chunk out of the markets ability to operate.

Its a gamble either way, personally I would lean on staying put and saving hard/paying off mortgage hard. You never know when something bad may happen and we are far from out of the woods yet recessionwise.
 
I'm no expert but my personal opinion is that house prices will decrease once interest rates rise. Many people are benefitting from the record low interest rates but I wonder how many people put enough thought into future interest rate rises and if they would still be able to afford their mortgage.
 
they're not too high, they're priced for the demand. you want to live in a nice area? you'll pay more than you would in a dodgy area for the same sized house. simple.
 
cm1179 said:
they're not too high, they're priced for the demand. you want to live in a nice area? you'll pay more than you would in a dodgy area for the same sized house. simple.
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This really depends on your take, historically high multiple of average earnings to average house, largest deposits required in living memory, lowest interest rates in living memory and still a supressed market lead most to think house prices are over priced.

A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, if you do not have buyers willing or able to buy then its impossible to say its valued correctly.
 
House prices are just equalising to their true value. Its going to run on for at least another year yet, until it hits that sweet spot where lenders are looser with the purse strings and the prices are more favourable.

Right now they are not (well, apart from in London which seems to be a blip, as always).
 
robskinner said:
This really depends on your take, historically high multiple of average earnings to average house, largest deposits required in living memory, lowest interest rates in living memory and still a supressed market lead most to think house prices are over priced.

A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, if you do not have buyers willing or able to buy then its impossible to say its valued correctly.
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i understand your point but the fact of it all is that we are simply running out of space so to say it's a buyers market is a bit misleading.
 
When the majority of the general public believe prices will be going down in the future, that is usually the bottom, which is now.
 
My sister just bought a house and got 15% off the asking price they initially offered 25% below but the sellers refused
 
It's also down to the area and the price point you are looking to sell at. I put up a house for sale in around mid feb, it sold in 2 days at 5k more then we wanted but 15k under the inflated asking price.

Anything in London and you can't go wrong. I Would say it's a good time up upsize if you can afford it.
 
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