House Sales Still Declining Not Reached Rock Bottom Yet
House prices are still falling, despite the base rate cuts by the Bank of England and the measures taken by the government to increase the flow of credit in the UK economy.
According to the RICS Housing Market Survey the average number of sales per surveyor fell from 10.6 to 10.1 in the three months to December 2008, to the lowest level since this statistic was first recorded in 1978.
On some positive news, the level of new buyer enquiries was up for two consecutive months and growing at it’s fastest pace since August 2006. This may be good news from some points of view, but the reality is that a lot of new buyer enquiries may not be able to get the mortgages in place to buy the properties.
The market will eventually bottom out, but this will not be until the cost of financing comes down in line with the Bank of England base rate, and more importantly, the availability of finance increases. I suspect a lot of would be buyers are being savvy and holding out on buying until they feel the market has got to its’ lowest point.
Here are some interesting interest rate predictions for the coming year, and beyond. The effects of interest rates on the overall economy, availability of finance and the housing market is paramount, so it always bodes well to understand where they are going. If like me, you have a tracker mortgage, it’s very useful to know that you may have another two years of low mortgage payments.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment