As we reach the end of another year, I find myself musing over the latest housing market trends and wondering just how hard it might be to sell my house next year.
We have had more than a decade of non-stop house price growth, but now the housing market has reached a point of instability that indicates further slow down.
Recent statistics show house sales falling faster than they have in the past eight years and the number of new house sales has dropped for five months in a row, bringing us the severest decline since 1999. Supply is more than demand as many rush to sell before the housing market slowdown, which is widely forecasted.
For the moment these down trends are regional and the most badly effected are Yorkshire, Humberside and the Midlands with the market in Birmingham being described as depressed. Northern Ireland has shown the most spectacular price boom of recent years. Yet recently has experienced the largest price falls.
This month has also seen the Bank of England responding by cutting interest rates to 5.5 percent as they anticipate a slowdown next year. Assuming that mortgage lenders respond this should bring some relief to those who have seen their repayments rising sharply in the past year.
Another problem will be the nearly one and a half million people whose fixed rate terms end in the year to come. Will they be able to secure a comparable new rate or will this add to the rising repossessions?
This week we have also been warned by Chris Huhne, the candidate for the Liberal Democrat Leadership, that the planned capital gains tax cut next April, could lead buy to let landlord’s hastening to sell. This could intensify what an already weak housing market.
One of the top DIY chains, Wickes is warning of a considerable slow-down of customer spending in the coming months because of the decline in the housing market.
As housing prices fall, people are inclined to move less as equity diminishes and we also hear more stories of people being repossessed due to excessive lending rates of the past and the Citizens Advice report nearly sixty thousand people seeking advice on loan and mortgage arrears since April 2007.
So if like myself you are considering selling your house next year, how should we proceed? Selling with an estate Agent can take six months, how much may the price of my house drop in this time? I have been in this situation before, though many years ago. I started out selling at fifty five thousand and eventually bagged a price of thirty eight thousand, so you can see the reason for my concern.
An Instant Sale are house sale specialists and property investors who operate throughout the UK. For a free, confidential and no obligation offer on your home visit our website at: http://aninstantsale.co.uk
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