pokissimo

Its America: no bailouts for the little people.

Hill View House, Haseley Road, Little Milton, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX44 7PP - Unsold 550,000 They had their greater fool in their hand and let them go: Its on the market for 565,000 right now... http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=61104403&sale=64157106&country=england Last sold for 227,700 in 2004...

Not that hard to look and see what "early 2000's" prices for these houses are, though... Not quite what you'd like, I suspect... Go look for yourself.. http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=+AL5+3LX&n=50 Number 9 sold for 263,000 in July 2001. Number 8 sold for 363,000 in 2003. The 3 bed semi's were selling for nearly 200K in july 2000. Not saying that they didnt pay a stupid price in 2007, mind you

I'd suggest this is better value (just at the point where broome manor lane hits marlborough road:) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32822474.html Dont know why anyone would pay 245 for a 3 bedder on tismeads...traffic is only going to get worse down there as wichelstowe fills...

Looks like they've pulled it from the market!

The house is in Lakeside...people do want to pay a premium for 30's built houses against the 80's or later developments...so I'm not surprised its on for more than 250...415 is ridiculous, though... Its on with Henry George - who are often...generous in their initial valuations. Thus they have cornered a chunk of the market in lakeside/lawn/broome manor/old town (especially the downsizers who dont "need" to sell). Their playbook goes like this... 1) Offer Highest valuation: 2) Put house on at laughable price after getting instruction: 3) After 4/6 weeks: push to reduce by 20K (or 10% seems to be another route) 4) keep pushing then either a) House sells to other person who is selling with Henry George...3 months passes and Chain falls over... House goes dual agency or moves to other agent. I've noticed that there has been a pretty broad cut of 10-20K off asking prices around that area though - the 2007+ asking prices have faded away, and we seem to be heading back towards mid-2008 asking. Stuff isn't shifting above 200...

Slug, Assume you mean Edinburgh: City: Public Sector Workers Percentage of Workforce ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- City of Edinburgh 69000 22.66 Swindon 18600 16.85 Maidstone 19700 27.86 (well known to be immune from any falls) Swindon has a relatively diversified workforce, split between the tech companies (Telco mostly), The insurance/finance group (Zurich/Nationwide), Honda screwing cars together and the BMW mini pressing plant and then theres the swindon council and research councils, as well as the national trust fr the public and third sectors. Prices of housing vary depending on where you look...two bed flat prices have plummeted already and will probably continue to do so. Its cheaper than most of the surrounding cities...(Oxford/Reading/Bristol) or the surrounding countryside. The city centre is not the most desirable place, to be sure, but you are nicely situated to go to the country surrounding...

I dont think that an offer of 30K off for the upham road house will be entertained either: I agree that Lawn prices being higher than old walcot prices are driven by a number of factors - the houses and plots are often slightly bigger, there are more semi's / larger houses and less terrace rows. My suspicion with regards to Lawn and SEN is that there are a number of factors making this up. Some schools may be better in that regard than others. I suspect actually that Goddard Park is pretty good in that regard, based on seeing the ethos in the school (and it has pretty decent value added scores), but I dont see a rush of kids going that way across queens road in the mornings.

Looking at those three: The people I know who live in walcot are desperately trying to get their kids into Lawn Primary, to avoid the walcot primary school. Right now, people do want to get their kids into Lawn primary, so its commanding more of a premium. The cleeve lawn house has been on the market over a year: They didnt get 240 next door for more extended version of the same house with a newly fitted kitchen. However - I'm pretty sure the occupants won't take 190, or they'd have sold. 3 bed semi's in lawn are achieving 220+, like it or not, and in the current market with not much competition, I think 220 is a reasonable minimum for that house. Its on with an agent who doesnt sell much in the lawn area. The farleigh crescent bungalow: Its marketed by Henry George. If you make a non near asking price offer - you'll receive a letter. It will say. Thank you for you offer. It is not sufficient. Please reconsider and revise.

Lawn gets you into Lawn Primary catchment (which is one of the better swindon primaries - the headmaster has just changed, but the new H/M is from the wanborough primary, which was about the best primary in the area per ofsted) That said - theres nothing available for 150K in Lawn unless you want a flat. 3 beds will probably cost 180+. Lawn is mostly 3 bed semi's, some 2/3 bed bungalows and 3/4 bed detached houses. The houses are solidly built, and well spaced out - typically gardens are 60 ft or more, even on the semi's.

Some things to think about: The road down from okus to town will be slow in the morning, although its not the worst trek in the world. There are a huge amount of unsold flats on the development, and probably little demand at the moment to fill them - they dont seem to be selling quickly, based on house sale figures...my suspicion is that they'll end up in HA hands, and then all bets are off, even though okus and the westlecot part of old town is very desirable right now. Bloor are just one developer down in wichelstowe - all the majors (DWH/wimpey/persimmon et.c) are building down there to with no-one to buy (flood plain + next to M4 + years of development + no services yet = why bother!) Wichelstowe is the Bradley Stoke of this economic cycle. Bloor have tended to deal at about 15% below asking - or they certainly were at the turn of the year when I looked up there...might be feeling more bullish at the moment. Wichelstowe is the Bradley Stoke of this economic cycle.

1 21/08/2006 £390,000 Ter. F No Map 30, Kirkwood Drive, Durham, DH1 4FF 2 27/05/2005 £300,000 Ter. F Yes Map 30, Kirkwood Drive, Durham, DH1 4FF Turned up on the land reg showing a August 06 sale at 390,000! The greater fools were still out there then! God help them now!

I'll stick to my henry. Cheaper - made in UK and bags last an age... Had a dyson: blew up after 2.5 years...never again.

Anyone still looking in Swindon? What I'm Seeing: 1) SN25 area (Priory vale et.al) Lots of stuff for sale, resales seem to have to take 25% losses on sale prices from the peak years. 200K Buys a 4 bed detached if you arent too fussy about catchments. Actually, any it seems that any new builds in Swindon are taking a kicking. 2) Old town et.c. - Sellers seem split into 2 camps: Overextended 30-somethings looking to downsize and 50/60/70 something "Its still worth 2007 prices" who are stuck on the market. 3) Wichelstowe. Dead! Dont see anyone living there - just rows of shells of houses with occasional "reserved/sold" signs on them. Its going to be a building site for years and years down there....

Yes - maybe for a "narrow" definition of "round here" - i.e. on one "leafy" street full of "professionals" who think their house should be worth 750K. The whole definition of the median wage for an area (which you carefully ignore to concentrate on your fabled "professionals") is that 50% of those *earning* in that area are earning less than that. So - what we are saying is that in order to buy the "median" house - (i.e. the 3 bed semi in the not bad but not great part of reigate - maybe under the gatwick flightpath) you need to have two "professionals" working full time for the entire 25 year period?