Is anybody buying houses these days?

BO-JANGLES

Has anybody bought or sold thier house recently? My wife and I moved from Dublin to south Kildare 5 years ago and my wife is really unhappy there. Ideally we would love to move back to Dublin. I told my wife we will put the house on the market. Just wondering if anybody on boards has or plans to buy.

Bo-jangles

gigino

The only property I know of which sold recently, sold for its 1996 price...more than 60% off its peak value.

I know tons of property for sale for years which has not sold.

mathie

Friends bought recently at 50% off the 2007 price.
Sales are going through alright.
Just not the volumes like before.
If you want to sell you have to be the cheapest house around.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Im buying at the moment, the time is right for myself and OH, we plan to be in the house for the next 20 odd years, so negative equity will not be a current problem for us....maybe in 20 odd years it will be.

The house we chose ticks all of our boxes, needs a bit of work but the potential is huge.

Good luck.

JoeyJJ

I may buy this year however I would need to come to an agreement with a reasonable vendor because I will be submitting bids much less than asking. I am keeping a very vigilent eye on prices using all the tools the internet has to offer.

Above is assuming I get a mortgage, need to settle with kids, long term, no ladder mentality will be long term if I do.

coup1917

I sold my house last October for the full asking price.
I got lucky, had two offers and one fell through...

At the time the second buyer, which I thought was a chancer was the offer that ended up buying after the first viewer fell through...
Have been renting since. I plan to buy as soon as possible, if the location suits me, I will then judge the property if its suitable.

I'm looking for a place to settle in long term, so am not interested in getting a bargain, buying on the cheap etc. If the house suits us, we will buy...

Not a whole lot to choose from out there though, as most people are not interested in selling, negative equity and all that..

NerdyNed

I'm in the process of buying at the minute. The vendors eventualy agreed to sell at a price well below the original asking price.

I've been watching the property market in my area for a few years now (since before the height of the boom). Most of what was on sale a few years ago is still on the market now. A lot of people are still asking for ridiculous prices, but very little is moving at those rates.

Good luck with your sale.

Goldenegg

We bought our house last October and had a fight on our hands with a second buyer. The reason being was because it was an absolute bargain, that needed renovation and had lots of potential.

I have friends and colleagues who are buying / recently bought and I find that those who are getting on the property ladder now are those who don't plan on moving house in the next ten years so hopefully won't be in negative equity.

Best of luck with everything!

robd

Still holding off on buying. Would be reckless to buy with interest rates going Up Up Up. Best time to buy is when interest rates are at their peak.

Lots of sales went through in North East of Dublin last year. Was quite in 2nd half of year. Things seem to be gearing up in terms of sellers advertising new houses. Will be interesting to see what buyers do. Tax increases, new government and interest rate increases has to be spooking most people though.

gigino

wait until property tax comes through - like in N. Ireland. And if the IMF leaves our public servants on UK public sector wage levels ( 22k a year stg on average ), then our public servants will see their wages nearly halved. That will affect house prices.

ZYX

robd wrote: »

Still holding off on buying. Would be reckless to buy with interest rates going Up Up Up. Best time to buy is when interest rates are at their peak.
.

Why on earth would that be the best time? It is like people have the idea that rates will go up to a peak and then fall to some sustainable level.

In answer to the OP question. about 20,000 bought houses with mortgages in the 12 months up to Q3 2010.
http://www.ibf.ie/Libraries/Research_Statistics/IBF_mortgage_stats-NOV2010.sflb.ashx

EricPraline

ZYX wrote: »

Why on earth would that be the best time? It is like people have the idea that rates will go up to a peak and then fall to some sustainable level.

I think the point is that high interest rates will push prices further down, which will benefit those who have been saving diligently and don't require a huge mortgage.

ZYX

EricPraline wrote: »

I think the point is that high interest rates will push prices further down, which will benefit those who have been saving diligently and don't require a huge mortgage.

Interest rate is only one of a multitude of factors that effects price. To say when rates are at their highest then prices will be at their lowest is naive.

robd

ZYX wrote: »

Why on earth would that be the best time? It is like people have the idea that rates will go up to a peak and then fall to some sustainable level.

House prices are linked to ability to borrow. Ability to borrow is based on interest rates. The higher the interest rate the less can be borrowed and hence cheaper houses. Also market sentiment generally follows rather than leads so at higher interest rates lead to lower sentiment so less people buying and hence cheaper prices.

I certainly am not factoring in interest rates falling to some sustainable level.

The alternative is to buy now and get squeezed as interest rates go up and up and up.

EricPraline

ZYX wrote: »

Interest rate is only one of a multitude of factors that effects price. To say when rates are at their highest then prices will be at their lowest is naive.

Of course there are other factors, although I would say that high interest rates (and the effect they will have on affordability and the number of repossessions) would be a key factor.

Incidentally which multitude of positive factors do you expect on price over the next few years? The introduction of a property tax, large-scale public sector lay-offs, risk of national default?

ZYX

robd wrote: »

House prices are linked to ability to borrow. Ability to borrow is based on interest rates. The higher the interest rate the less can be borrowed and hence cheaper houses. Also market sentiment generally follows rather than leads so at higher interest rates lead to lower sentiment so less people buying and hence cheaper prices.

I certainly am not factoring in interest rates falling to some sustainable level.

The alternative is to buy now and get squeezed as interest rates go up and up and up.

Ability to borrow is not based in interest rates. It is one factor that influences rates. House prices are not linked to interest rates.

Anyway you will only know when peak rate has been reached after it has happened. No one is going to say "now is peak interest rate". Peak interest rate nay be in 1 years time, 5 years time, 20 years time or in 1000 years time. Rates go up and down regularly. If you are saying you do not see rates falling to a sustainable level that means you will never buy as unless the rates are sustainable you cannot afford to buy.

robd

ZYX wrote: »

Ability to borrow is not based in interest rates. It is one factor that influences rates. House prices are not linked to interest rates.

Anyway you will only know when peak rate has been reached after it has happened. No one is going to say "now is peak interest rate". Peak interest rate nay be in 1 years time, 5 years time, 20 years time or in 1000 years time. Rates go up and down regularly. If you are saying you do not see rates falling to a sustainable level that means you will never buy as unless the rates are sustainable you cannot afford to buy.

Your kind of word picking but anyway. The point is that what people consider as sustainable today are in reality ultra low interest rates. Rates will reset to average 6%. This is totally unsustainable to people who bought at 2-3%.

Obviously I can't know when exactly peak is. What I know today is that rates are very low and are likely to get much higher in the medium term.

So to be specific. I will look to buy when interest rates are >6%.

Every central banker would disagree with your view on interest rates. Monetary policy has a huge influence on asset prices including house prices.

You seem to think that I an others regard interest rates as the only influencer of house prices. No one ever said that it was the only one. Indeed their are lots. Increasing interest rates will influence house prices over the coming 24-36 months just as tax increases and wage cuts have influenced them over the past 36 months. Interest rates are the significant factor to still be added to the pot as an influencer of the downward trend in prices.

youcrazyjesus!

I'm in a position to but with the banks doing everything they possibly can to shake down existing customers, interest rates that are likely to rise against my static income and taxes going through the roof I've decided recently not to bother. Even with all the above going the wrong way I could still afford it but what's the point in buying then worrying about the future and reevaluating your financial situation every time the banks decide to jack up their rates even in times of static EU CB rates.

iguana

ZYX wrote: »

Interest rate is only one of a multitude of factors that effects price. To say when rates are at their highest then prices will be at their lowest is naive.

At the moment prices are mid-plummet while IRs are still at historical lows. The factors causing that will not change once rates rise, they will most likely only get worse. If IRs return to historical norms, that's the base rate at 6-7%, or higher, then the last real prop to the housing market will become a dead weight to drag it down.

iguana

OP, if you really want to sell then you will. The thing to remember is that you must be the lowest listed similar property in your area, you must carefully consider each and every offer and not dismiss the low ones as insulting/ludicrous.

Very importantly you must be 100% sure that the agent you have representing you is on board with actually selling your house and isn't deluded that things will soon return to "normal' as many appear to be. Just take a look around the boards at the way many agents are treating the buyers they should be actively selling to. If your agent is dismissive of a potential buyer or treats them in anyway unprofessionally then you immediately lose a potential buyer. Make sure they take pictures of each room in the house, a few from different angles in the bigger rooms, pictures of the front and the back gardens, and have accurate floorplans - lots of buyers aren't bothered going to see houses that are listed without full information as missing information often means a lie of omission. Don't have lots of pictures of things in the area, they look stupid - though if you have great views from some of your windows/patio it's ok to include pictures of those as long as they are accurate and say what they are.

ZYX

iguana wrote: »

At the moment prices are mid-plummet while IRs are still at historical lows. The factors causing that will not change once rates rise, they will most likely only get worse. If IRs return to historical norms, that's the base rate at 6-7%, or higher, then the last real prop to the housing market will become a dead weight to drag it down.

My point is, to say once rates are at there highest that is the time to buy is wrong. "Peak interest rate" does not mean the bottom of the market has been reached. If rates rise to 7-8% then drop again to 5-6% that does not mean prices will rise.

If the economy is still in the situation it is in at present, prices will continue to fall. If we see tens of thousands of under 30 year olds leaving the country every year, then prices will continue to fall. If people still have no faith in the future recovery of this country then prices will continue to fall. So Robd's comment that the "Best time to buy is when interest rates are at their peak" simply ignores everything else going on in this country. When interest rates are at their highest then yes it may be a good time to buy but just as equally it may be a stupid time to buy.

Mrs Bambi

Very difficult time at the moment with all the uncertainty