Housing Market Declining Rapidly

[Cyclefrance]

The housing market over here has had a few wobbles this last couple of years since it's specatcular performance the previous 4-5 years.

Blips started post 9/11 and then hit more with the run up to the Iraq war and then post-invasion jitters, and the spiralling oil price which hit disposable income.

The growth of the eastern economies, particularly China and India, has acted as a counter-balance to the otherwise far worse effects that the oil-driven inflation could have brought, and companies generally here are still doing relatively well thanks a lot to the Eastern effect.

Net result is that property prices here only dropped a little while stock and share prices gathered momentum, having been at a low since the dot.com crash, and money therefore still seems to circulate and wages keep pace with rising costs. This year house prices are moving upwards again here - not sure if this is an inflation adjustment, though. There's still a feeling that the long-term is hard to predict, but short-term confidence is a good bit stronger.

The sorts of falls you show in your stats don't seem so different from those we saw here the last year, from memory. Maybe what you're seeing is just an adjustment similar to ours - but If US prices do drop considerably, then there always seems to be a plentiful supply of Brits ready to take advantage of low house prices and favourable exchange rates... guess every cloud....

[unlawflcombatnt]

CycleFrance,

Several months ago I was hearing that real estate prices in Britain were declining. I didn't delve into too deeply, however. From what you're saying, however, prices are on the rise again. Is that correct?

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by unlawflcombatnt

CycleFrance,

Several months ago I was hearing that real estate prices in Britain were declining. I didn't delve into too deeply, however. From what you're saying, however, prices are on the rise again. Is that correct?

Sorry, a bit slow replying as away from home. It seems to be the case that they are. The top end of the market was stagnating and that fed through the chain downwards to the cheaper end of the market - now this year the City have been handing out record bonuses again and are buying at the high end, so both the market and people are moving again. NOt sure how long this will last but London and SE UK prices are showing rises of 5%+ against last year already.

I think the forward market is still hard to predict - it's still unsettled - there isn't a clear sign that it's about to storm ahead or drop into the doldrums. The economy here seems to be coping at the moment with any fallout from oil-price driven inflation. In the past we would have seen the economy nose-dive by now. In then most basic analysis, expansion/growth in the East with countries like China and India is preventing that it seems.