Why Britain's house price crash is far from finished

[DimPrawn]

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/hous...september-2009

[sasguru]

House prices only ever go up apart from a major drop of about 20% or two

And what is 20% if you have enjoyed a rise in the hundreds over the years?

UK property - safe as houses.

[TimberWolf]

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/hous...september-2009

Why are

10 properties coming off the market for every 8 coming on

?

[DimPrawn]

Why are ?

People aren't putting their house on the market and the stock that is on is selling like hot cakes at silly (high) prices, especially in the South where people have huge stashes of cash.

[bodnobal]

House prices only ever go up apart from a major drop of about 20% or two

I think you need a new spelling machine.

[GreenerGrass]

You have to be aware that there are a number of financial journalists who have been talking the market down for the last couple of years, Andrew Oxlade, and from Moneyweek we have perma-bears Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and David Stevenson who while waiting for their 40% crash in property failed to predict both a 9 month bounce in house prices and a 40% increase in the stockmarkets.

The reason is they want to a) buy cheap London property for themselves and b) be proved right, but the cruel reality is that every temporary correction in prices (they are gutted they missed the bottom) is negated by their decision to rent for years instead of paying down the principal.

At some point in 2018, a decade after the "crash that never was" started, they will realise they have wasted many 10s or hundreds of thousands in rent, while many of us will have actually paid our properties off, aided by Britain's so called "Lost Decade" (or certainly lost half decade) of mega low rates.
As inflation takes hold from that point on their rents and interest rates will climb and property will be no more "affordable" than it is now.
The idea that houses will ever go back to averaging 3 times a single salary is absurd when working couples (rightly or wrongly for society) are the norm.

The perma-renting people praying for people to get repossessed now will be the ones to be pitied in years to come, as their savings are eroded by inflation and wages consumed by increasing rent. When Merryn Somerset Webb finally applies for a mortgage aged 55 she may struggle to get one.