House prices still falling, says Nationwide

[Scoobos]

Probably in a minority in this social circle, but I'm glad, bits been false for years IMHO.

If you are selling at 6x the rebuild value
to people on 5x 2 people's income
interest only

then I reckon it's inevitable.

[nomadd]

These reports always make for interesting reading. To get a balanced view its also worth reading the report that Halifax do as its not unusual for one to claim falling house prices whilst the other claims that they are rising.

On balance, house prices have been falling for quite some time outside of Prime Central London - and even there they are falling now.

Had family members "complete" on a chain this Monday. Every house on that chain had to drop ~25% from 2007 peak prices to keep the chain alive.

[Martin@AS Financial]

They probably want some extra publicity as they have just released a 2.89% 4 year fixed rate.

[lukemg]

Only advantage is the free advertising every month as the figures are announced so job done. As it happens, NW is an excellent business so I have no qualms about them doing well. My issue is the media reaction.
We all need to be a bit smarter when we see these (or any) headlines.

[BS1397]

As usual - a UK wide figure is totally pointless and means nothing, everyone knows the differences across areas of the uk. What we can probably say is broadly flat, slight drift down in most areas, this is a slightly larger drop when you chuck effects of inflation.
This is generally positive and will drag prices down over time to allow wages to catch up a bit. Only issue is confidence of consumers which we could do with at the moment to keep the economy going, this was propped up for a long time by house price increase and easy credit, both now gone.

Exactly...

Why did the Nationwide make such a sweeping statement when clearly it will put off a lot of buyers as they hope for cheaper houses in the next few months or next year, and sellers being put under pressure to either discount further or be forced to become Landlords (as in my case) because the estate agents seize on this report as gospel to force lower prices so they can stay in business.

Does any one know if there is a business advantage for the Nationwide to depress the market further? Surely they know that everything they say and do will have a direct business impact on them, so what is there to gain?

[lukemg]

As usual - a UK wide figure is totally pointless and means nothing, everyone knows the differences across areas of the uk. What we can probably say is broadly flat, slight drift down in most areas, this is a slightly larger drop when you chuck effects of inflation.
This is generally positive and will drag prices down over time to allow wages to catch up a bit. Only issue is confidence of consumers which we could do with at the moment to keep the economy going, this was propped up for a long time by house price increase and easy credit, both now gone.

[The_Equalizer]

One day people will realise that falling house prices are a good thing, except for bankers.

In my part of the UK they are down about 50% in nominal terms which I guess is about 60% in real terms. No bad thing if you look at the big picture.

[Martin@AS Financial]

These reports always make for interesting reading. To get a balanced view its also worth reading the report that Halifax do as its not unusual for one to claim falling house prices whilst the other claims that they are rising.

[BS1397]

One day people will realise that falling house prices are a good thing, except for bankers.

Sorry but I can't take The Nationwide seriously, Six years ago (well before the crash) they gave me their expert computer valuation for my 4 bedroom house and it was £25K less than the actual selling price of the 3 bedroom houses in my street. When challenged they said that their figures reflected an average for the post code of my region and that this is their basis for any offer or quotation, I think they meant the first two letter digits of the Post Code?

But on the same day, Their insurance quote overvalued my house by £40K thus bumping up the premiums quite a lot, and they were not very happy when I insisted that they use their official valuation (above) and also pointed out that since I already owned the land then the actual clearing and rebuilding costs including other incidentals (like temp rental) would be a fraction of their insured sum and certainly far less than their official valuation of the property.

Oh, I am still waiting for my Consent-To-Let application form to drop in the post even though I have a Tenant on stand by eager to move in, They tell me it takes 5-10 business days to process once they have received it, however most of the brokers I phoned since last week said that they are actually behind with processing all sorts of applications and are currently up to 3 weeks late for whatever reason (Summer Holidays?).

[TimberWolf]

House prices have fallen for the fourth time in five months, says the Nationwide building society.

The fall of 0.7% in July means prices are now 2.6% lower than they were a year ago, at an average of £164,389.


On Monday, figures indicated that the property market is heading for a new downturn, with new mortgage approvals at their lowest since 2010.

...

"This disappointing outturn can be only partly explained by unusually wet weather and the impact of an extra bank holiday during the quarter," he pointed out.

BBC News - House prices still falling, says Nationwide

One day people will realise that falling house prices are a good thing, except for bankers.