Oxford

[FamilyGuy]

OK... at the risk of dragging things back on topic, could I say a quick hi and ask for peoples thoughts?

I'm currently trying to decide whether it's a good time to be buying a 'standard' 2 or 3 bed terrace in Jericho.

There is very little on, but what comes on seems to be moving reasonably quickly. I'd say that the stock coming on at the moment is a bit less desirable than some that was coming on 6-12mths ago (I've been watching Jericho for about the last 18 months) but perhaps that's just a subjective thing.

Looking at PB and at the actual sale prices it seems like prices have come down maybe 10% in the last 18 mths, although it is difficult to tell as there are so few properties sold in Jericho.

What are peoples thoughts on Jericho in general?

Thanks and be kind to the newbie..

Tom

Hi Tom,

I'm also looking to buy - but I think the best advice is if you see a house you really like, as a home where you are going to live for a while and it is on at a good price (for the time and area) then buy it. Don't kid yourself you're doing it because it makes a great financial choice, but you're doing it because you like the house as a home.

If you don't really like the house, or it doesn't suit your needs, don't buy it.

If the prices go up, you can feel smug for buying at the right time, if not you can feel happy that you really like your house and it will go up in value eventually, but the current loss in value doesn't matter as you weren't going to sell anyway.

In the end no one really knows how much houses are going to rise or fall in the next 5 years, so make the decision based on the house

[ElPapasito]

In the end no one really knows how much houses are going to rise or fall in the next 5 years, so make the decision based on the house

Actually we do know, once you start talking about 5 years. in one year we don't know I agree; in 5 years prices will be far south of current prices in real terms. Yes even in Oxford. But can you be bothered to wait?

[thehowler]

What are peoples thoughts on Jericho in general?

There are some fine, real people in Jericho and a nice boozer at the Harcourt Arms. It could do with more trees. Strong on community events.

Don't know if you've crossed the Rubicon into paternity but I hear good things about St Barnabas school - arts and extra curricular stuff has a good rep - although there's a bias towards Phil and Jim which is reflected in prices.

If I were to opine, I'd say this was a bad time to buy. Houses there and small family houses in Walton Manor were cheaper six months ago. Hard to argue with that. I keep an eye on Hayfield Rd prices and they're back up around the 500K mark - from lows around 400K.

If you can, I'd wait. I think the market will weaken again within a year. Others will tell you prices are rising. All sorts of men in one kind of world and that's where the surf breaks on this thread. When I read a transcript of Mervyn's speech from last night I deduce we're screwed. Even the establishment are saying it. Others only grin.

But Family Guy has it right - if you like somewhere and you'll be there for several years just jump in. Check the catchments carefully if you have kids - they're shrinking.

[capability]

OK... at the risk of dragging things back on topic, could I say a quick hi and ask for peoples thoughts?

I'm currently trying to decide whether it's a good time to be buying a 'standard' 2 or 3 bed terrace in Jericho.

There is very little on, but what comes on seems to be moving reasonably quickly. I'd say that the stock coming on at the moment is a bit less desirable than some that was coming on 6-12mths ago (I've been watching Jericho for about the last 18 months) but perhaps that's just a subjective thing.

Looking at PB and at the actual sale prices it seems like prices have come down maybe 10% in the last 18 mths, although it is difficult to tell as there are so few properties sold in Jericho.

What are peoples thoughts on Jericho in general?

Thanks and be kind to the newbie..

Tom

Well Jericho has alot going for it. Pubs, cafes and lots of delis...so so many delis... Great cinema, international lively bunch of people and good schools. Drawback is it is very expensive per square foot.

I would say the best value for money is not the small terraces in Jericho itself but instead the 3 bedroom houses on the Waterside, they offer a garden and parking.,which is rare in Jericho. Also good access to Port Meadow. Actually it is for all these reasons that we like living in North Oxford.

There are lots of people on this site ready to run down the quality of life living in Oxford.. but you know what, I would struggle to think of anywhere better in the UK. outside, well lots.

Actually for all those reasons I don't see prices for the good property falling much from here. Good luck in your search.

[FamilyGuy]

Well Jericho has alot going for it. Pubs, cafes and lots of delis...so so many delis... Great cinema, international lively bunch of people and good schools. Drawback is it is very expensive per square foot.

I would say the best value for money is not the small terraces in Jericho itself but instead the 3 bedroom houses on the Waterside, they offer a garden and parking.,which is rare in Jericho. Also good access to Port Meadow. Actually it is for all these reasons that we like living in North Oxford.

There are lots of people on this site ready to run down the quality of life living in Oxford.. but you know what, I would struggle to think of anywhere better in the UK. outside, well lots.

Actually for all those reasons I don't see prices for the good property falling much from here. Good luck in your search.

I don't hink anybody has been running down North Oxford. I don't agree it is one of the best places in the UK to live however, just one of the better places to live in Oxford.

Jericho is nice - again I've lived there (one of the disadvantages of having only stayed in a house for a max of 3 years is I've now lived in a lot of places...). Schools are good. A number of cafe's and restaurants for going out. Disadvantages are overpriced . A lot of the housing stock is poor - a lot of the terraces were built for canal workers are not well built and are small. Waterside is alright - further away from the shops and bars and closer to the railway line. Some of the houses have a very good view of the railway line, so be aware. But I'd certainly say it's one of the nicer areas of Oxford, but you are going to pay a premium for it.

If you do have kids, especially more than one you could end up in a small, expensive house. There are other good primary schools in oxford, and Cherwell isn't the best Secondary in Oxford, but it's one of the best. However, if you do need to move you would be able to sell your house

What are you looking for in a place to live? space,. schools amenities?

[TomW]

Thanks to everyone for the replies, all good and useful info.

With regards to what I'm looking for, it's primarily the location. A lot of my friends live in Reading or London, so easy access to/from there is one of the main drivers - that's why I'm looking at Jericho rather than Headington, Summertown or Cowley Road.

The other main driver is the social side, at the moment I'm living in a Cotswold town and it's just too quiet (I'm single, with no kids).

I guess the concerns I have about Jericho are really down to whether it's a bubble within a bubble. The location is so handy it's bound to command a big premium, but working out whether the premium it's now commanding is sustainable is tough! If not I guess I'd be better waiting it out until the prices bottom, if they haven't already.

Tom

[thegirlfrommarz]

Thanks to everyone for the replies, all good and useful info.

With regards to what I'm looking for, it's primarily the location. A lot of my friends live in Reading or London, so easy access to/from there is one of the main drivers - that's why I'm looking at Jericho rather than Headington, Summertown or Cowley Road.

The other main driver is the social side, at the moment I'm living in a Cotswold town and it's just too quiet (I'm single, with no kids).

I guess the concerns I have about Jericho are really down to whether it's a bubble within a bubble. The location is so handy it's bound to command a big premium, but working out whether the premium it's now commanding is sustainable is tough! If not I guess I'd be better waiting it out until the prices bottom, if they haven't already.

Tom

Tom, if you want to get to London easily, you'd be better off in Headington (unless you're really wedded to going by train) - the Oxford Tube and Espress bus services between Oxford and London are excellent, and being in Headington means you're close to the A40/M40 out towards London if you drive. Obviously, at rush hour the bus takes forever because it goes through central London, but it's fine at the weekends and at off-peak times and runs all through the night.

Having said that... I work in Jericho and it is a lively area - Headington is pretty dull in comparison. The Cowley Road has a lot going on (that can be a good and bad thing, as when my friend who lives off the Cowley Road had a crack addict on her roof throwing tiles at the police...) and is home to a lot of students. If you're young and single and looking for excitement on your doorstep, I would recommend Jericho or the Cowley Road ahead of Headington and Summertown, as the latter are generally more family-oriented neighbourhoods. Prices will be higher in Jericho than the Cowley Road area, but I think they will probably be more likely to hold up (or at least decline less badly) as Jericho appeals to families more than East Oxford and is better located. If you do go for Jericho, make sure that your house has the right to on-street parking (sounds ridiculous, but a friend of mine found that she didn't). What kind of prices are Jericho terraces at the moment? When I last looked they were c. £350K-£450K.

[fallingbuzzard]

Jericho is one the best places if you need morning access to London, or get a driver. Jericho is very mixed and also has drug and homelessness related problems so you have to be really careful.

Tom, if you want to get to London easily, you'd be better off in Headington (unless you're really wedded to going by train) - the Oxford Tube and Espress bus services between Oxford and London are excellent, and being in Headington means you're close to the A40/M40 out towards London if you drive. Obviously, at rush hour the bus takes forever because it goes through central London, but it's fine at the weekends and at off-peak times and runs all through the night.

Having said that... I work in Jericho and it is a lively area - Headington is pretty dull in comparison. The Cowley Road has a lot going on (that can be a good and bad thing, as when my friend who lives off the Cowley Road had a crack addict on her roof throwing tiles at the police...) and is home to a lot of students. If you're young and single and looking for excitement on your doorstep, I would recommend Jericho or the Cowley Road ahead of Headington and Summertown, as the latter are generally more family-oriented neighbourhoods. Prices will be higher in Jericho than the Cowley Road area, but I think they will probably be more likely to hold up (or at least decline less badly) as Jericho appeals to families more than East Oxford and is better located. If you do go for Jericho, make sure that your house has the right to on-street parking (sounds ridiculous, but a friend of mine found that she didn't). What kind of prices are Jericho terraces at the moment? When I last looked they were c. £350K-£450K.

[Edhutch]

Jericho is one the best places if you need morning access to London, or get a driver. Jericho is very mixed and also has drug and homelessness related problems so you have to be really careful.

Gazumping is back in Jericho (have this on v. good authority from someone to whom it has just happened (property ended up going for 5% ABOVE asking price). If you like it and can afford it, go for it. Fallingbuzzard has a downer on anywhere he can't afford btw, so buckets of salt and all that.

[frustratedbuyer]

I think the prices have gone down in Oxford.

I was looking in Cambridge where they have rocketed and I'm now back in Oxford as it has become cheaper. Saw a few 'reasonably priced' properties in Jericho, which would have bigger asking prices a few months ago, but as somebody has rightly remarked they are too small and the lack of parking is an issue.

I just wonder if the fall in prices is due to the market being flooded with properties, in Cambridge supply is low and demand is high so people are fighting for anything decent coming onto the market, while in Oxford a lot of houses have been for sale for months. Property Bee tells me another story.

[fallingbuzzard]

Yes, you're absolutely right and I'm absolutely wrong on everything, even my financial affairs in which you are an expert. So I stand corrected by the man in the know, there is absolutely no drug problem in Jericho and homelessness isn't an issue there at all. Pigs also fly in Jericho.

Gazumping is back in Jericho (have this on v. good authority from someone to whom it has just happened (property ended up going for 5% ABOVE asking price). If you like it and can afford it, go for it. Fallingbuzzard has a downer on anywhere he can't afford btw, so buckets of salt and all that.

[Edhutch]

I think the prices have gone down in Oxford.

I was looking in Cambridge where they have rocketed and I'm now back in Oxford as it has become cheaper. Saw a few 'reasonably priced' properties in Jericho, which would have bigger asking prices a few months ago, but as somebody has rightly remarked they are too small and the lack of parking is an issue.

I just wonder if the fall in prices is due to the market being flooded with properties, in Cambridge supply is low and demand is high so people are fighting for anything decent coming onto the market, while in Oxford a lot of houses have been for sale for months. Property Bee tells me another story.

According to land registry figures both Oxford and Cambridge as a whole (not specific postcodes) are up by about 4% from May 09 to Sept 09. Suspect North Oxford is up by more than this based on recently achieved prices and probably the best bits of Cambridge would be similar. There is still a problem with low supply of the decent 4 bed and upward stuff in Jericho and N. Oxford: are you talking about these areas?

[Edhutch]

Yes, you're absolutely right and I'm absolutely wrong on everything, even my financial affairs in which you are an expert. So I stand corrected by the man in the know, there is absolutely no drug problem in Jericho and homelessness isn't an issue there at all. Pigs also fly in Jericho.

Diss it all you like: others disagree and the buyers are back. Plenty of parents of young children love Jericho for its excellent primary schools, as TheHowler has already pointed out, so clearly they aren't put off by the putative 'problems' you are so desperate to talk up.

[frustratedbuyer]

I'm talking about right now. Asking prices were higher in spring/summer.

I have been viewing houses since the beginning of the year, got outbid in Oxford and Cambridge during the warm season and recently put an offer on a three bed detached in Cambridge but because of its lower stock, there is competition, which makes unlikely that my offer will succeed as I am not going to pay over the odds.

So I'm looking in Oxford where asking prices have been reduced for several properties.

North Oxford is not good value for money, but there are bargains if one keeps looking (such as a semi for 325 in Summertown, when next door sold for nearly 500K the year before). I don't mind buying a wreck as I renovated houses before but there is a scarcity of them as developers snapped them up quickly.

That said one of the renovated houses up for sale is being sold close to the price the developer bought it for, so I guess he/she must be in need of cash to flog it for such a low price as he/she won't be able to recover much of the dosh he put in the renovation.

Looking at the prices in the land registry, I don't see such a bonanza, sure some houses sold for quite a bit but they were exceptional houses, the dogs (ex rentals, wreck, etc) are still unsold or are not getting the full asking price. There was a house in Summertown, a terrace with the absurd asking price of 400K, I was quite surprised to find out that it sold for under 250. So somebody got a bargain there.

Edited October 31, 2009 by frustratedbuyer

[fallingbuzzard]

The buyers are back (?) in Jericho - I'd dispute that because last week's auction house fell flat, no bids means no sale, so I think your assertion that there is some wonderous housing recovery isn't in line with the opinions of property developers. But of course, you're right and they are all wrong. But much as I like Jericho, if buyers are back the pushers and the homeless never left. I'm not talking up problems, I'm stating them. You downplay them.

Diss it all you like: others disagree and the buyers are back. Plenty of parents of young children love Jericho for its excellent primary schools, as TheHowler has already pointed out, so clearly they aren't put off by the putative 'problems' you are so desperate to talk up.

Edited October 31, 2009 by fallingbuzzard

[thehowler]

[quote name='fallingbuzzard'

The buyers are back (?) in Jericho - I'd dispute that because last week's auction house fell flat...

So is that the corner house on Walton Well/Longworth Road? No garden. I think it was bequeathed to a small fluffy animal sanctuary out in Stadhamton. The Howler has the information.

The market is shakier than papa Hem before his morning tumbler of Havana Club. Price drops on Southmoor Rd - semi-detached with Breckon just slashed 40K or more. And no.77 Kingston Rd not selling at 985K, despite it being one of the rare faux gothic houses. It may have oddities though.

Was in Liscious, Walton St this afternoon eyeing up a chaise longue for idle musings and reclinings and the dealer was telling me that the landlord college (St John's I imagine) wants to sell up the block, from Little Clarendon up to Freuds. The halloween whisper of a Tesco.

Jericho's walls wobbling with trumpet calls from all sides, the seamy, plundering greed of a property-obsessed peuple and economy.

[FamilyGuy]

Was in Liscious, Walton St this afternoon eyeing up a chaise longue for idle musings and reclinings

for some reason my mental picture is of you, naked, on the chaise longue with a pipe.

Apologies.

[Edhutch]

Leemo, you are 100% wrong about the Kingston Rd property: not prepared to say anything more but I have inside knowledge of this. Your stuff on St John's sell-off is also BS, but if it makes you feel better, hey carry on fabricating...

[fallingbuzzard]

The stuff on St John's is BS, but only because its Univ is the landlord

Leemo, you are 100% wrong about the Kingston Rd property: not prepared to say anything more but I have inside knowledge of this. Your stuff on St John's sell-off is also BS, but if it makes you feel better, hey carry on fabricating...

[thehowler]

Leemo, you are 100% wrong...

EdHutch, you are 100% and emphatically wrong on your nomenclature - the facts evade even you at times.

And there's no need to get so irate and pumped up about my casual observations and anecdotal yarns. The tale has to be spun in many different ways.

Now where's my pipe...I've got fabrications to be carrying on with...

[thehowler]

TomW - don't know if you've seen the Jericho Echo but worth a peep if you're exploring the area:

http://pstalker.com/echo/

Howler

[fallingbuzzard]

The writer is 100% wrong about the canalside redevelopment site: I'm not prepared to say anything more but I have inside knowledge of this. But if it makes you feel better, hey carry on fabricating. All the buyers clearly they aren't put off by the putative 'problems' you are so desperate to talk up.

(I just thought I'd get in their in advance for a change!)

TomW - don't know if you've seen the Jericho Echo but worth a peep if you're exploring the area:

http://pstalker.com/echo/

Howler

[ElPapasito]

Pleased to announce that Charles Lawson main agency on Cowley Road has closed. That's the 3rd EA that has gone, leaving 2 in the West end of the street, quite enough for the neighbourhood. Maybe we can have some real shops back.EP

[thehowler]

On the topic of desperate agents...those Oxonians in need of a chortle in these dank November days could do worse than take a peep at J C Penny's full-page Christmas offer extravaganza in the Oxford Time property rag. In huge letters it doth declaim they'll waive their commission fee for lucky sellers and renters. On closer inspection...the next ten sellers who instruct Penny will be "entered into a draw" to decide who - and no mention of how many - gets the deal.

Bah! Humbug.

[fallingbuzzard]

LOL

Edited November 12, 2009 by fallingbuzzard