First time buyers

[Uncle C]

Are there any potential first time buyers out there.
If so has the recent drop in house prices encouraged you to buy, or is it still out of reach?

 

[Mellotron]

Will probably be looking to first time buy in about 7 months. Why do you ask?

 

[Mr Burns]

I'm a first time buyer, and have been waiting for over a year to buy.

I am hoping I will be jumping on the ladder this year, but am not ready to do so yet, as I firmly believe that there is still a long way for the market to fall.

At the beginning of the year, people I know in the industry, whether banking or building were predicing a 40-50% drop to really kick in during summer, so I still and wait!

Although prices "at the pump" so to speak, ie in agents windows haven't dropped much, I would suggest in some cases an offer of 70-80% of asking prices is more realistic in what properties are going for at the moment.

Estates agents will claim they are getting more enquiries and offers then ever, but then they would! With the bank bailouts, most banks are giving 6 months grace to customers in arrears, so I would guess instead of people throwing the keys back after Christmas they will have 6 months grace, which is why people are talking about a summer crash, but then thats a guess as to why everyone was talking about the summer before prices really fall. I think when the big price drop happens, it will be sudden and sharp as people with buy to lets, that have to re-mortage, will suddenly find themseleves with massive increase in payments and want to bail out, while they still can.

In short, I'm sitting and waiting for the housing market to crash. Might even buy 2 if it goes down that much!!

 

[Uncle C]

Why do you ask?

Just bloody nosey I guess. We keep hearing about green shoots of recovery, but I dont think so yet.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

I'm a first time buyer, and have been waiting for over a year to buy.

I am hoping I will be jumping on the ladder this year, but am not ready to do so yet, as I firmly believe that there is still a long way for the market to fall.

At the beginning of the year, people I know in the industry, whether banking or building were predicing a 40-50% drop to really kick in during summer, so I still and wait!

Although prices "at the pump" so to speak, ie in agents windows haven't dropped much, I would suggest in some cases an offer of 70-80% of asking prices is more realistic in what properties are going for at the moment.

Estates agents will claim they are getting more enquiries and offers then ever, but then they would! With the bank bailouts, most banks are giving 6 months grace to customers in arrears, so I would guess instead of people throwing the keys back after Christmas they will have 6 months grace, which is why people are talking about a summer crash, but then thats a guess as to why everyone was talking about the summer before prices really fall. I think when the big price drop happens, it will be sudden and sharp as people with buy to lets, that have to re-mortage, will suddenly find themseleves with massive increase in payments and want to bail out, while they still can.

In short, I'm sitting and waiting for the housing market to crash. Might even buy 2 if it goes down that much!!

This not right. Buy to lets and people re mortgaging at the end of deals will find their payments MUCH lower now as the SVR is so low. Why do you think they will have a massive increase in payments ?.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

HSBC are now offering 90% deals for first time buters fixed for 2 years at 4.99%. You have to open a bank account with them tough but is by far the best 90% deal on the market. Its time other lenders starting following suit and not just rely on HSBC to take all the initiatives.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

As I have said for a long time 90% deals at reasonable rates would reverse the house price falls overnight. If other lenders follow HSBC in the coming weeks I think the market will slowly increase for the rest of the year. I think we are at the bottom or very near of the market.

 

[dannyboy]

first time buyers are buying our place at about 10 k less than what we put it on the market for . think we could have got more but there on this shared ownership scheme which only goes up to a certain amount. the house were buying we had to pay full asking price and lob in a bit for f and f to sweeten the deal as got in a bit of a bidding war. but its a nice place, think we'll be there for a while. just call me the lord of ardingly

 

[Slough Seagull]

Our first time buyer has just f*cked off leaving us in limbo...

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

House prices are now predicted to level out from September onwards , prices will be on the rise again and the rate at which the market picks up is all dependent on the result of next years General Election.

 

[beorhthelm]

At the beginning of the year, people I know in the industry, whether banking or building were predicing a 40-50% drop to really kick in during summer, so I still and wait!

i dont believe any serious commentator on the subject has suggested such a crash.

as Uncle S. says HSBC are trying to get punters in, so it seems they think the market has bottomed.

 

[Uncle C]

House prices are now predicted to level out from September onwards , prices will be on the rise again and the rate at which the market picks up is all dependent on the result of next years General Election.

I think people wrongly draw comparisons with price drops on the Stock Market. These are often V shaped, where recovery is as fast as the initial drop.

History has always seen a recovery of house prices which is U shaped. In other words prices roll along level for months, even years, before eventually rising.

There is no need to be panicked by Estate Agent talk of a strong recovery. For them recovery means an increase in the number of houses sold rather than increases in price.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

i dont believe any serious commentator on the subject has suggested such a crash.

as Uncle S. says HSBC are trying to get punters in, so it seems they think the market has bottomed.

The only predictions of a further 40% fall were from worst case scenario wallahs. Speculating that the market will plunge only benefits companies that buy up properties for cash at 75% of the fair market value and they do more than their fair share of shit stirring.

 

[Storer68]

They are still way too expensive for ftbs to even contemplate

average houespirice is still around 10x the average wage

 

[Monty]

Supply and demand is the obvious massive factor. As people now seem to think the market has bottomed out, fewer properties are coming to market with more and more proceedable applicants keen to buy NOW. I cant believe how quickly things change but we have seriously nearly sold all out stock. Properties that fall through are also being tied up at higher prices.

Too soon to say the market has turned again, but these early signs show massive improvement in the market. If i could, i would buy now.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

As I have said for a long time 90% deals at reasonable rates would reverse the house price falls overnight. If other lenders follow HSBC in the coming weeks I think the market will slowly increase for the rest of the year. I think we are at the bottom or very near of the market.

I would agree with that. Very shortly it will occur to the banks in a flash of inspiration that there if they don't lend their money out they won't make any profit. As long as they are realistic with their status checks they will be able to sell a lot of 90% mortgages significantly over the base rate or even LIBOR without pricing themselves out of the market or causing problems for borrowers to make the repayments. And with prices being low at the moment the potential of people running into negative equity who buy now is much lower than it was.

We may or may not be at the bottom of the market but the way to make money is not to wait till the absolute bottom, because you won't know where the bottom is until prices have risen again. If you can buy within 10% or so of what turns out to be the bottom of the market you will have done well. If you wait and wait until you are sure the market is at the bottom you will almost certainly miss out as prices start to rise again, bearing in mind it takes at least a couple of months to buy a house.

So I would doubt that the market would have much further to fall. But that wouldn't stop me making a silly offer if I was looking to buy a house. You never know, they just might accept it.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I've got a decent sized deposit for when I decide to buy, but that will be next year at the earliest. Everyone is saying that we are at the beginning of a resession so there is no reason to think that prices will shoot up all of a sudden. No rush at the moment, I'd rather see how the economy pans out over the next year.

 

[Del Boy]

Everyone is saying that we are at the beginning of a resession

We officially entered a recession in January, the first since 1991.

 

[folkestonesgull]

we are looking at selling our flat and moving to a house. Our flat is worth less than we paid for it over 4 years ago - and has dropped by approx £35k since we had it valued in April '07.

Deals for 90% and 95% mortgages are now out there and the market in my area has picked up quite a bit recently - a lot of properties have started to sell in the last month or so as well.

The good news for us in our SVR mortgage is portable so effectively half our mortgage will be at 2.5% for the short term, off setting any extra we will have to pay to fix for 2 years

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Can you tell me where the 95% deals are please ?. The only is is the Nationwide Bs for existing borrowers. I think 90% will be the max this year.