[Si1]

drew, on Jan 28 2009, 04:54 PM, said:

The sensible person in me thinks we should go into rented and wait for further price falls but the other part of me thinks that we shouldn't put our lives on hold!.

I think you'l find that cryogenically freeezing yourselves would put your lives on hold, as would going to prison, but it's been medically proven that renting doesn't, much - Harrogate restaurants do allow renters in - but you have to have the table by the door

[tinecu]

http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_...mp;endyear=2008

Looks like a crash to me

[Brave New World]

the flying pig, on Feb 25 2009, 10:19 PM, said:

those asking prices are obviously a bit daft - peak and then some - but i'd be interested to see what they actually sell for in the end...

Just to note, the first gaff is on for £230k

The second is on for £219k

Like you say will be very interesting. House on Gray Street close by was on for £179k and it was in tip top condition. 18 months ago they were going for £200k. This was on for 4 months and didn't sell.

tinecu, on Feb 25 2009, 10:35 PM, said:

http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_...mp;endyear=2008

Looks like a crash to me

Great site!

[the flying pig]

this is hilariously bad.

take peak prices and add ten grand for good measure. on jennyfields

LINK

[the flying pig]

if you look on this thread someone has devised a very natty extra for firefox that enables you to trace house price changes over time.

upsetting really to see what happened in harrogate - prices doubling in not much more than a couple of years. very bad news for everyone except the obvious.

but you can see a couple of falls starting to sneak in. what looks like a reposession in borobridge fell by 47% between apr 07 and jan 09. another repo in knaresboro fell by over 40% between june 08 and dec 08.

so very few sales, but those sales that are happening seem to be at roundabout 2004 prices?

[Brave New World]

the flying pig, on Mar 1 2009, 10:33 PM, said:

if you look on this thread someone has devised a very natty extra for firefox that enables you to trace house price changes over time.

upsetting really to see what happened in harrogate - prices doubling in not much more than a couple of years. very bad news for everyone except the obvious.

but you can see a couple of falls starting to sneak in. what looks like a reposession in borobridge fell by 47% between apr 07 and jan 09. another repo in knaresboro fell by over 40% between june 08 and dec 08.

so very few sales, but those sales that are happening seem to be at roundabout 2004 prices?

Nice garden but dull and lifeless inside and in the awful Jen. Would much rather by a period terrace close to the town so you feel like you actually live in Harrogate as oppose to paying Harrogate prices for living on an out of town estate.

Yeah FP I am seeing late 04/05 prices but you will get a lot more stubbornness in Harrogate – using mummy and daddy’s money to prop up lives etc.

Its certainly in the post though, we both know folk have to move and certainly the culture of having outgoings as big as your earnings, living month to month keeping up with the Harrogate set will factor more and more as jobs losses continue, especially in Leeds.

I have tried to get the tracker program on my home laptop but won’t download annoyingly!!!!!!!! Property Bee. It gets blocked at work.


Another ‘interesting’ one to keep check of:

Two semis on Leeds Road near the Total petrol station and great access to the local tyre garage, one of friends at school lived used to live there. Both semis were brought about a 18 months ago and converted into flats. They were finished about a 6 months ago and originally had a big sign outside reading “Exciting investment opportunity” ……yeah certainly exciting but in the worse possible way.

Now up with Myring and Heward. Five flats from 166k to 152k.

http://www.myringandheward.co.uk/external/...rty-search.html

You have to love some of the jaunty angle pics by the EA! And the strategically taken shots of the road with no traffic on it……anyone would think it wasn’t on the busiest and main road into and out of Harrogate from Leeds! For some reason they haven’t mentioned the 24hr petrol station and access to a great range of tyres literally next door.

Could be an interesting one to sit back and watch.

[jaspers]

Brave New World, on Mar 17 2009, 05:32 PM, said:

Two semis on Leeds Road near the Total petrol station and great access to the local tyre garage, one of friends at school lived used to live there. Both semis were brought about a 18 months ago and converted into flats. They were finished about a 6 months ago and originally had a big sign outside reading “Exciting investment opportunity” ……yeah certainly exciting but in the worse possible way.

Now up with Myring and Heward. Five flats from 166k to 152k.

http://www.myringandheward.co.uk/external/...rty-search.html

You have to love some of the jaunty angle pics by the EA! And the strategically taken shots of the road with no traffic on it……anyone would think it wasn’t on the busiest and main road into and out of Harrogate from Leeds! For some reason they haven’t mentioned the 24hr petrol station and access to a great range of tyres literally next door.

Could be an interesting one to sit back and watch.

Drive past this everyday, would love to daub some HPC graffiti on those signs! "Soon to be auctioned" "Buy today, negative equity tomorrow" or something like that.

Annoys me how conversions like this get planning permission in the first place.

[the flying pig]

Brave New World, on Mar 17 2009, 05:32 PM, said:

...Another ‘interesting’ one to keep check of:

Two semis on Leeds Road near the Total petrol station and great access to the local tyre garage, one of friends at school lived used to live there. Both semis were brought about a 18 months ago and converted into flats. They were finished about a 6 months ago and originally had a big sign outside reading “Exciting investment opportunity” ……yeah certainly exciting but in the worse possible way.

Now up with Myring and Heward. Five flats from 166k to 152k.

http://www.myringandheward.co.uk/external/...rty-search.html

You have to love some of the jaunty angle pics by the EA! And the strategically taken shots of the road with no traffic on it……anyone would think it wasn’t on the busiest and main road into and out of Harrogate from Leeds! For some reason they haven’t mentioned the 24hr petrol station and access to a great range of tyres literally next door.

Could be an interesting one to sit back and watch.

swive me... they look like just about the worst sort of dwelling possible.

on the 'three times income' rule you'd have to be earning fifty grand a year to live there

i know that a fool is born every minute, especially in harrogate, but i still, surely, can't imagine any of those fetching even a hundred grand... they just look sh1t - so much nicer to live in a small house or flat on one of the better harrogate council estates for that kind of money...

[Brave New World]

George FTB, on Mar 17 2009, 05:46 PM, said:

Drive past this everyday, would love to daub some HPC graffiti on those signs! "Soon to be auctioned" "Buy today, negative equity tomorrow" or something like that.

Annoys me how conversions like this get planning permission in the first place.

I have had the very same temptation every morning when I pass it! “Put yourself in debt and keep the developer in his Mclaren SLR”

PS like the Kes avator thingy.

the flying pig, on Mar 17 2009, 10:19 PM, said:

swive me... they look like just about the worst sort of dwelling possible.

on the 'three times income' rule you'd have to be earning fifty grand a year to live there

i know that a fool is born every minute, especially in harrogate, but i still, surely, can't imagine any of those fetching even a hundred grand... they just look sh1t - so much nicer to live in a small house or flat on one of the better harrogate council estates for that kind of money...

These types of developments are a joke. Where two families lived comfortably you now have the potential for 10 grown people to be living there given the potential limits on lending. They probably have the ‘Ann Frank’ apartment hidden away in a ceiling recess somewhere. The only difference between this and a hostel is your own locked door, some laminate and some ceiling spot lights!

Anyway sit back and enjoy!

[the flying pig]

Brave New World, on Mar 18 2009, 12:01 PM, said:

...These types of developments are a joke. Where two families lived comfortably you now have the potential for 10 grown people to be living there given the potential limits on lending...

i don't think i've ever seen anything like it. buying a place of that size might make sense for a weekday bolt-hole in London, New York, or whatever, you know, somewhere to crash for a couple of nights a week before going back to see the family...

but spending £150k on it in harrogate, as a place to live... i can't make head or tail of it... well, i suppose the 'investment' poster was a clue as to the target market... but, i mean, why would you rent a little shithole like that instead of somewhere proper? how much could they possibly rent one out for? the rental yield would be miserable.

[Meepstar]

The fact that Harrogate (and surrounding areas) has good schools, beautiful architecture, lots of greenery, excellent amenities, and good connections to Leeds, York, Bradford (and, at a push, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle), means that Harrogate properties will be always be desirable, popular, and retain value no matter what the economy does.

And if they aren't and don't, I can think of far worse places to be stuck because you can't afford to sell.

[Brave New World]

Meepstar, on Mar 25 2009, 05:10 PM, said:

The fact that Harrogate (and surrounding areas) has good schools, beautiful architecture, lots of greenery, excellent amenities, and good connections to Leeds, York, Bradford (and, at a push, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle), means that Harrogate properties will be always be desirable, popular, and retain value no matter what the economy does.

And if they aren't and don't, I can think of far worse places to be stuck because you can't afford to sell.

Conversely areas like this have more to loose, certainly the area is lagging behind the general UK market as folk have a little more in reserve to stave off any work problems etc – bank of mummy and daddy on Duchy!

Record low interest rates have also helped BUT when you see lower rung housing going from circa 50k to touching 200k in a little under 10 years you know there is going to be a kicking to be had in the market – FTB’s who live in these old type of terraces are on Leeds wages, with Leeds employment market looking shaky to say the least there is no justification to be paying 5x salary + to buy a house.

Certainly I have seen a 10-15% fall in house prices – we are talking well decorated nice 2-3 bed terraces that would have flown off the market but have circa 10% reductions and they are sticking.

Fortunately the banks do not discriminate too much in terms of Harrogate having the Stray, good schools etc – it is of little relevance when banks are and THANKFULLY will continue to ask for 15% deposits. Everyone my age lives for going out, going on holiday and buying nice clothes – they do not and cannot save! My age group are also sadly the first out of the door when it comes to redundancy! So factor in rising interest rates, continued job losses and I feel the market has just as far to fall as everywhere else, certainly some would argue further as recent years have squed people’s perspectives on what actually is value for money – 250k for some grot box on Jennyfields for god’s sake!

And the fact it is a nice place has had no effect on the plunge in sales in the area across property types.

PS There are worse places to be stuck but imagine being repossessed in Harrogate living in rented and still seeing signs of supposed opulence?!

[the flying pig]

Yeah, ‘meepstar’ comes across as fairly severely misguided – certainly a statement like “Harrogate properties will be always be desirable, popular, and retain value no matter what the economy does” is pure estate agent drivel.

Harrogate prices can and will take a beating in a recession – they certainly did last time round, in the early to mid 90s.

The fact that it’s a nice place does indeed mean that Harrogate will always be significantly more expensive than almost all parts of Yorkshire – but when the rest of the country & surrounding areas crash then so does Harrogate. I'd expect the ratio of prices in Harrogate to those anywhere else to stay more or less constant over time.

If anything one might guess that Harrogate might have further to fall than most areas – the pace of price increases this decade there has been terrifying, a classic speculative bubble pattern if ever I saw one. My parents had a bit of a dabble in Harrogate property ‘investment’ a little while ago – they bought a small house on Jennyfields in early 2005, and then spent a few months doing it up and deciding what to do with it – they’d been planning to rent it out but once they realised what an abysmal yield they’d get on it they decided to sell… the work they’d done on it was, by any standard, very naff, horrible patterned tiles in the kitchen and stuff like that, clearly chosen by an older person and out of step with current fashions… but when they sold in late 2005 the price had somehow increased from about £175k to £210k, an increase of over 20% in a matter of months.

Lunacy.

This post has been edited by the flying pig: 27 March 2009 - 10:22 AM

[the flying pig]

looks like things are still booming.

latest figures from http://www.houseprices.co.uk show that there were a princely 30 completed transactions in the HG postcode area [i.e. all of harrogate, knaresboro, ripon, & so on] in february 2009.

i remember reading that there are now almost 60,000 households in the harrogate district, if things continue at this rate, we'll be looking at 12*30 = 360 moves per year, and an average length of stay in a house by a household of 60k/360 = 167 years.

either that or sellers will get real.

februarys are usually quiet-ish but feb 08 sales were over 5 times feb 09, and feb 07 over 8 times...

[Brave New World]

Thanks TFP, interesting info and puts the mexican stand off into perspective. Property lower end 150-230k seems to have dropped 10-15% but no more and i still fail to see any real value when put into context of what is happening in the wider economy.
Certainly the stats point to no one being in a position or inclined to buy which kind of kills the misnomar of deisrability acting as a shield to HG prices.

Update on one of the houses i was keen on watching, off the market and went past it and the post was up but no sign, hinting at a withdrawl from the market.
House nos 2


Radiculously priced terraced still on at £230k!!!!! (Rental property on that road is at £580-£700 pm)

House 1