House prices in your area

We bought our end terraced house in Stoke, Coventry six years ago for £48,000.
Today it sold for £145,000. Terraced houses on our street usually price around £125,000 we just got really really lucky!

Congratulations!  That's excellent!

we're currently down sizing and sold our house(3 bed victorian terrace) for £360, the new one(1940s) was a steel at £225. house prices in my town (Leamington Spa)are way too high.

I have been paying attention to the prices here around Southwest Manchester. A house I would really really want and adore (3 story Victorian terrace with cellar conversion) is about £200k. A house I would really like (2 story Victorian semi) is about 160k. 3 bed 30's style semis are about 150k. 2 up, 2 down garden terraces are 130k. We could comfortably afford £110k, but could stretch to £130.

There are a ton of houses on the market here, and slowly I see things that I would actually like costing less (still too much though). The plan now is to stay with DH's mum for 18 months or so while we stash our cash for a deposit. I think that in 2 years lots of people will have lost their BTL's and people who have stretched themselves will have been repo'ed.

Read these:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/03/15/ccmort15.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/02/nhomes02.xml

The situation is very shaky because so many people have withdrawn their equity... to go on holiday, get new cars, pay off credit cards... Also the salary multiples people are borrowing are too high to withstand interest rate hikes.

If you look at this graph:

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/graphs-average-house-price-to-earnings-ratio.php

You can see that around 1990 houses were selling for near 5 times the average salary. You see the following trough which came with the recession... around 1995 the multiple was around 2.8. The end of 2006 shows a multiple of near 6 times the salary.

Oh how we all wish Crystal Ball's existed!

Trouble is, they've been saying theres going to be a 'correction' ever since late 2000 and early 2001 when the real fallout from the dot.com boom kicked in. It didn't happen. so I managed to stick my leg in and buy around Aug 2002. since then, as the economy picked up rather unexpectedly and due to those interest cuts, we've all enjoyed increased equity etc etc. they've still been saying 'it cant go on forever and a correction is due soon, and I agree I think there will be - i dont think there'll be a crash, but with the gradual increase in interest rates, the bite will surely be felt more. Whether or not that will actually equate to significant drops in home values remains to be seen, who knows, a few months ago, I noticed a dip in values, so i was a little miffed when i saw similar places to mine within a short space of time being advertised at £5K less. But then, a few months later they went back up again !

So depending on who you speak to, they'll say buy now or buy later (after the "correction")  so ultimately, its a case of "if you can afford it now, keep up the payments and all associated costs with owning a house - then buy now - as you'll live in it for a good while, even if the market goes down, you will have a place to live and hopefully over the next 7-10 years the next cycle of values will mean it goes back up again"

Mattj74 - there's a simple way that people afford £325 grand fixer uppers as well as 500 grand houses, 750 grand big houses, 1 milion + large houses -

They're further up the ladder than 1st time buyers - remember, 1st time buyers only make up around a fifth (i think that was the amount) of the property buying market and as its been falling lately, its the reason why these idiotic 5x salary mortgages are being made available by the mainstream banks etc)

For people looking to move up the ladder or to even get on it, it's a real bichh to do so. It's the reason I'm looking elsewhere.

DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Prices around here are crazy. They say home prices in Pembrokeshire have gone up the fastest in the UK in the last 5 years - granted, we were behind the rest of the country 5 years ago. Still, with so many English retirees deciding they want seaside village life, it's driven prices way up. A boring little 3-bed bungalow will run you £300-350K. But, again, it's all about location. If you don't mind being on the outskirts of the village, you could find something about the same size for £200-250-ish, I think.

I'm going to be moving to Cornwall fairly soon; unfortunately, I seem to pick places with ridiculously expensive houses. 

A big congrats Pebbles! 


We really thought we bought at the top of the market (put the offer in May 06 and moved in Sept 06) but we are seeing houses on our street and the next one over going for £30-35k more than what we paid....AND some of those houses only have a bathroom on the ground floor behind the kitchen with no room to add one upstairs, luckily ours is upstairs.

Needless to say we are shocked at the crazy prices!   

Thanks everybody! Now if we could only find a house we like!

Congrats Pebs that is great!

Ok we have all seen and heard of absurd prices (I watch the property shows like an addict) but this example takes the cake. I was just watching one of those shows tonight and a woman bought her little house off of the council in Battersea (London) for £50k ten years ago and just sold it for £335k. The decor was still from the late 1960's! That is OTT ridiculous!    Between this example and the BTLer's (and big builders) no wonder so many people can't get on the property ladder! It becomes a vicious circle.

On a separate but similar note my husband just learned that one of his friends (a lawyer, hello, not in desperate need) is buying his 4th rental propriety. My response.....he should be taxed out the kazoo for them! The government really needs to step in and stop this debacle. Yes its a free market economy but stop allowing people to gobble up properties!  Look at the coastal (or holiday) areas where locals can't even afford to buy in their own town/village and those places have become ghost towns during the winter. Luckily a few councils are no longer allowing "out of towner's" to buy. We need to see more mandates like that.

In a weird sense I do understand why people do purchase BTL properties because a lot people's salaries and pensions are crap over here considering the high cost of living so they are doing everything they can to make money outside of their jobs (i.e. - property). I say, increase taxes on those that own rental properties and maybe the mania will slow down and those that can't afford it now, will possibly be able to buy.

There is a big need to equalize the market.

Good luck Pebbles in finding a place!

I was up in Coventry last thursday for about 20 mins - had to pickup my cousins and their 2 kiddies as they dont drive and left for India on Friday and I remember them talking of another family member who bought what they say is a really nice newish build house 4bed I think, for a really good price around a year or so ago. Obviously prices have probably risen, but keep a lookout for places you may not have ordinarily considered - as pricing may put out of reach the kinda place you'd really love to have.

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Our street is nothing special; all terraced 60's houses with tiny kitchens and bathrooms.  Most have two bedrooms, some only one. Last year, a few sold in the 325,000 range.  A few months ago, our neighbors sold theirs for 500,000.

Hope the buyers have some cash left over... I don't know if they realize they own part of our garden fence, currently a pile of sticks.

Our street is nothing special; all terraced 60's houses with tiny kitchens and bathrooms.  Most have two bedrooms, some only one. Last year, a few sold in the 325,000 range.  A few months ago, our neighbors sold theirs for 500,000.

Unreal! 

Our street is nothing special; all terraced 60's houses with tiny kitchens and bathrooms.  Most have two bedrooms, some only one. Last year, a few sold in the 325,000 range.  A few months ago, our neighbors sold theirs for 500,000.

I imagine you must be fairly close to Central London?  Prices are just a bit more skewed there!
I can't imagine why someone would want to be a terraced house with 1 bedroom or that many have been built, might as well just buy a 1 bedroom flat.

I think the average in Norwich is around £200,000 for all types of property, and about £160,000 for terraced houses (though the average price is higher in some areas of the city, obviously).  We're in the process of buying a nice two bedroom mid-terrace house for £150,000, but we looked at houses in the same price range in more desirable parts of Norwich that were in much worse condition. 

I imagine you must be fairly close to Central London?  Prices are just a bit more skewed there!
I can't imagine why someone would want to be a terraced house with 1 bedroom or that many have been built, might as well just buy a 1 bedroom flat.

I'd rather live in a terraced house or maisonette than a purpose built flat.  Higher ceilings and usually more character.

Vicky