Housing affordability 'at seven-year high'

[Moscow Mule]

Rightmove do house prices - I think they're actual selling prices. So you can see what similar properties are getting.

If you can find a mate who is an estate agent, and they pay for Rightmove plus, you can generate a report of all the sold prices etc for a postcode. Not available to the general public though.

[SuperZ]

zoopla uses land registry sold prices and a bit of jiggery pokery.

Cheers, that site's worth a look. It estimates the price should be 6grand lower than the current asking price and it's peak price was about 90grand higher than the current estimate but I was hoping for more like 50-60 grand lower today. Still worth keeping an eye on it, I see some properties have been up for sale for 2+ years now so lots of potential negotiations on price me thinks.

[mudskipper]

Anyone know of a decent well balanced house price sold chart ? (ie, sold prices that are not decided by estate agents).
I'm hearing house prices dropped since 2007 but have been rising again and wonder where we stand on average compared to 2006/2007 etc. I'm especially interested in prices now compared to around Jun 2006(2nd quarter '06).
My perfect property has come up which was a new build in June 2006. Now it's second hand so a drop in value has to be priced in as new builds command a premium, but the asking price today is only 10grand down on what it was bought for in June 2006, which in percentage terms is pretty small at only a 2.6% discount to the June 2006 price. Would it be fair to think the market is down at least 15% average outside of london since June 2006, with a further 5% discount if I'm lucky (as it is no longer new build)?

Rightmove do house prices - I think they're actual selling prices. So you can see what similar properties are getting.

[Moscow Mule]

Anyone know of a decent well balanced house price sold chart ? (ie, sold prices that are not decided by estate agents).

zoopla uses land registry sold prices and a bit of jiggery pokery.

[SuperZ]

Anyone know of a decent well balanced house price sold chart ? (ie, sold prices that are not decided by estate agents).
I'm hearing house prices dropped since 2007 but have been rising again and wonder where we stand on average compared to 2006/2007 etc. I'm especially interested in prices now compared to around Jun 2006(2nd quarter '06).
My perfect property has come up which was a new build in June 2006. Now it's second hand so a drop in value has to be priced in as new builds command a premium, but the asking price today is only 10grand down on what it was bought for in June 2006, which in percentage terms is pretty small at only a 2.6% discount to the June 2006 price. Would it be fair to think the market is down at least 15% average outside of london since June 2006, with a further 5% discount if I'm lucky (as it is no longer new build)?

[vetran]

Plan A?

Buy the whole street and offer holiday lets?


OK its Detroit but a few customers a month would pay for a nice life.

[ctdctd]

Housing affordability has remained at a seven-year high

The Torygraph is always right - look, houses are as cheap as chips

[AtW]

i went out specially this a.m. and photographed that for you

oh ok, thanks - I like your attitude!

I still don't get it though!

Off to get my lunch in the office

[EternalOptimist]

I am legally entitled to only tell you my rank, age and military number if I can remember it

i went out specially this a.m. and photographed that for you

[AtW]

say you like my avatar or i will call you names

I am legally entitled to only tell you my rank, age and military number if I can remember it

[EternalOptimist]

I already am

say you like my avatar or i will call you names

[AtW]

I thought you were going to work on SKA

I already am

[EternalOptimist]

I thought you were going to work on SKA

[AtW]

Housing affordability has remained at a seven-year high, despite the cost of property rising during 2009, research has showed.

Slight increases in average earnings, combined with falling mortgage rates, helped to offset the price rises seen last year, to leave housing affordability at its highest level since 2003, according to property website Zoopla.co.uk.

The group said 58pc of properties in Britain were currently affordable for someone on average local earnings, based on people spending up to a third of their pay on mortgage repayments. This compares with affordability levels of just 34pc when property prices peaked in 2007.

Unsurprisingly, affordability levels vary greatly across the country, with homes typically more affordable in the north than in the south, despite the higher income levels of people working in the south. Bradford is Britain's most affordable city, with people on local earnings able to buy 82pc of homes in the area, followed by Hull at 81pc, Stoke-on-Trent at 80 and Birmingham and Coventry, both at 78pc.

Housing in London is the least affordable in the country, with only 32pc of people on local salaries able to afford to buy in the capital. Affordability is also stretched in Southampton, where only 44pc of people can afford to buy, followed by Bristol at 53pc, Norwich at 58pc and Leicester at 59pc.

Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: "Affordability rates have improved substantially over the past couple of years as a result of lower mortgage rates and falling house prices that have now begun to stabilise."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...year-high.html

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So they think that current ridiculously low interest rates make overpriced asset more affordable as if it was possible to fix low interest rate forever.

It seems obvious to me that getting into long term debt can't be decided on the basis of it is affordable right now.