Friday, Dec 21, 2007
Don't all rush out there at once
Firstrung: First time buyers reach lowest levels since 1980
The 5th annual Halifax First Time Buyer Review, which tracks housing affordability in 483 post towns, reveals that an estimated 300,000 first-time-buyers entered the market in 2007 compared to 532,000 in 2002. Terraced homes were the least expensive property type for first time buyers but in 71 per cent of towns across the UK, first-time-buyers are unable to afford terraced houses, compared to only 11 per cent of towns where terraced homes were too expensive in 2002.
Posted by converted lurker @ 03:49 PM (1242 views) Add Comment
13 Comments
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1. drewster said...
Nice to see some real housing news in a sea of CDOs and LIBOR stories!
2. paul said...
This is the crash. It's arrived.
3. alan said...
The stats for 2007 were pretty damming.
I'm sure the housing market will look different in 2008, because the speculators will be staying away with their hands firmly in their pockets.
Hopefully, 2008 will give affordable houses, and ordinary folk will be able to get a home of their own.
Cheers, I'll drink to that ....and Happy Christmas everyone!
4. planning4acrash said...
Well, according to the report, Lerwick in Scotland and Gosport in Hants are still affordable, wohaa!! I'll ring my broker tomorrow, innit, not!
5. planning4acrash said...
Well, according to the report, Lerwick in Scotland and Gosport in Hants are still affordable, wohaa!! I'll ring my broker tomorrow, innit, not!
6. who stole my pension? said...
If the EA are getting excited about the prospect of FTB jumping in and snapping up houses in 2008 then they had better sobber up and smell the coffee quick. The banks have run out of money for mortgages! So even if a FTB wants to buy (which I doubt as lot's are still paying off their student loans), and they have a deposit of 20% they still need some nice bank to lend them 80%. Most banks are now broke and need all the money they can get their grubby hands on. So no mortgages = no house sales = falling house prices! The FTB is not a dumb BTL so they will hold back till 2009 at the earliest!
7. renting2 said...
I would also suspect that 80% of those FTB were in the first 6 months of 2007.
8. Chembot said...
They might be cheaper but you won't be able to get a mortgage. That is what a credit crunch is. Unless you've got a big pile of cash you can forget it.
9. planning4acrash said...
Just looked at a job in Bristol and they reckon they can give about 27k for four yrs experience and an MSc. Just one bed flats in that bloody town are 200,000. Over 7x that salary. Its just SO DEPRESSING!!
And, to repeat my comments about student loans, rates went up from 2.2% to 4.4% this year because they are indexed to RPI (scandal), so many graduates are not even paying off their loans, being charged £500 to £1000/yr!!
10. Ash4781 said...
Alot of the demand to buy form FTB's was due to the fear of being priced out as prices ran out of control.
11. crash bandicoot said...
"Lower than average earnings house price growth together with more government initiatives may, in time, address the issue."
The time for government initiatives is over my friend. If the government actually had any initiative they might have pushed for a rise in interest rates in 2005 instead of a cut. But then we were living in a miracle economy created by our own king Midas - Gordon Brown. The genie is now well and truly out of the bottle, all there is to do is sit back and watch.
12. dohousescrashinthewoods said...
Ash4781, excellent point, succinctly made.
It's not just BTL blowing the bubble, it's ordinary folk who believe "if I don't by now I will never be able to".
13. European-bear said...
Now its why buy now if next year it will be cheaper