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HOLA441
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In an idle moment I took an irregular look at home.co.uk. The latest figures show prices softening a bit. But the real shocker is in turnover:

Dec 2006 vs Dec 2007

Detached 29 13 -55%

Semi 57 36 -37%

Terraced 77 52 -32%

Flat 78 40 -49%

Total Dec 06 241

Total Dec 07 141

That's a nice round 100 fewer sales in the month.

The average price in Dec 07 was £280,000.

let's say agents are charging 2% fees. That means Cambridge agents collectively made over half a million quid less than the previous year.

That's a hell of a downturn for any business.

Even if I've got the agents' fee percentage wrong, it's still a 42% drop in turnover.

Eyewatering for any business.

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Guest tbatst2000
let's say agents are charging 2% fees. That means Cambridge agents collectively made over half a million quid less than the previous year.

That's a hell of a downturn for any business.

Even if I've got the agents' fee percentage wrong, it's still a 42% drop in turnover.

Eyewatering for any business.

I've been wondering about that too. The only reason I can think that more of them haven't gone bust is that they pay their sales staff, at least, mostly on commission. Even so, they've got to be hurting.

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HOLA445

I spent a night in King's Lynn once (attending a job interview), the town was dead and I had the shocking experience of watching a man drop dead just yards away from me as I took a walk around in the evening. I didn't get the job either.

Consider yourself a very lucky person - in not getting the job. At present the town is dying a death as all the businesses are leaving as their tax funded bribes to locate their dry up.

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Crikey. That must constitute the majority of Cambridge property these days!

Funnily enough, £250,000 is the exact median price on Rightmove at the moment. So not quite, but very nearly the majority.

I reckon over £250k will be the minority soon :)

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Funnily enough, £250,000 is the exact median price on Rightmove at the moment. So not quite, but very nearly the majority.

Is that including all those shared-equity scheme houses? It looks like quite a few at the low end are shared-equity properties, so many prices need doubling. If you haven't been able to remove them (I can't see an option on rightmove), then the median is higher than 250k.

I wonder what the takeup on the shared-equity scheme properties are? I can't see them being very easy to sell in a falling market, especially as they don't look cheap if you multiply the price by 2.

Edited by xiox
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Is that including all those shared-equity scheme houses? It looks like quite a few at the low end are shared-equity properties, so many prices need doubling. If you haven't been able to remove them (I can't see an option on rightmove), then the median is higher than 250k.

I wonder what the takeup on the shared-equity scheme properties are? I can't see them being very easy to sell in a falling market, especially as they don't look cheap if you multiply the price by 2.

LTS for doing anything really fancy, so each week I just look at the total for sale in 'Cambridge' and work out the median.

So my median also includes new build (where often a developer lists one property but has several for sale).

I figure that as long as my method is constant, it's the trend that matters. And the trend is down. The peak was late last spring at c. £280,000. It stuck for a long time at £275,000 before falling steadily to £250,000 where it seems to have plateaued again.

The plateaus at £275k and £250K are down to these being very popular 'price points' with many houses on at this price.

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I was cycling down Eden street at the weekend - one of little streets between the Grafton and Parkers Piece. It's not a big street and there were no less than 6 houses up for rent and 1 for sale. Then round the corner there were another 4 houses to let. Can't seem to find any of them on rightmove though - I'm wondering if there's a bit of an oversupply there? Or maybe they're asking too much in rent?

Also of interest: quite a few friends have had to move recently as their landlords have decided to sell the house. In all cases they've negotiated down the asking rent for their new place - in one case from £1200 to £950, and the places they've moved from are still for sale...

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I work near Eden St and always been surprised by how much these properties are worth. They haven't reduced much yet...

£400k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-203...=6&tr_t=buy

£350k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-196...10&tr_t=buy

£400K

Ah ha ha ha, ha. Ha ha. Ha.

Nothing has ever sold in John Street for more than £345K, and lots of properties down there were £250k-ers until 2006. Nothing has sold since mind.

It's a little bit scary, as well as funny, how much vendors/agents are still expecting round these parts. Sure, great area, but nothing special about the house; typical, small terraced family home. That is SO MUCH money even for a typical, small Cambridge family.

Surely, surely this is a propertybee/snake candidate and if sells for anything above £350k, well, good on the vendors, and all hail the tenacity of the Cambridge property miracle-mirage.

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HOLA4413

By the way I have been monitoring property bee most days and whilst not providing updates like before, the rate of reductions has been pretty consistent. This is doing a search in lower end properties in Cambridge up to £270k. Nothing spectacular but interesting enough for me to get ever-so-slightly hooked on watching it :)

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HOLA4414
By the way I have been monitoring property bee most days and whilst not providing updates like before, the rate of reductions has been pretty consistent. This is doing a search in lower end properties in Cambridge up to £270k. Nothing spectacular but interesting enough for me to get ever-so-slightly hooked on watching it :)

GOD I hope they get bee'd BAD!

Yeah, it's addictive watching out for reductions. I am probably doing it the hard way and scrolling through em all, from £1.5m to £70k!

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You do get some more outlandish examples by checking higher up the range. Take back what I said about last few properties - they are a relative bargain compared to this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-192...=1&tr_t=buy

I don't care how many bedrooms it's got. I'm not paying 'From' 400K for a new build terrace on the wrong side of Arbury, hard by the motorway/bypass.

Can't think that anyone else would either. Unless people really are far more stupid than I could ever imagine.

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HOLA4420
Cycled past this and wondered how much it cost:

http://www.tylers.net/property.aspx?Ref=C2...l2=0.1154851913

WTF? 265 grand for something built like a tiny cardboard box? Have I slipped into a crazy alternate universe?

I wonder whether people look at non-rightmove EAs nowadays...

It's an incredibly expensive bit of town, there. Almost (but not quite) Newnham prices.

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HOLA4421

That would be my favourite place to live in Cambridge - near old town, nice cycle across Jesus Green to Grafton area where I work, near the pubs at Mitchum's corner... very few houses come up for sale in that area, or to rent for that matter or else I'd be there!

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HOLA4422
It's an incredibly expensive bit of town, there. Almost (but not quite) Newnham prices.

I had a friend who lived in one of those houses back in 95, now I can't remember the exact figures she bought and sold for, but I have a feeling it was sold in the £50-60k region. They were a teacher, qualified a few years and a FTB when they bought. Can you imagine a teacher being able to afford that house now!

So that’s an approximate increase of x5 in 13 years, it was increases like this that made me decide to sell my house in Cambridge a few years back. I will have to contact my friend and find the exact purchase/sale price.

Don't remember that area of town being almost as good as Newnham though! Unless things have changed since I was last about.

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Newnham's nicer for oldies perhaps (no offense Quinch!). I go to gigs more than granchester, and more town than gown :)

Good for the new Barfly, Jesus Green pool/beer festival, the Maypole and the Alpha Rd. offie!

Some nice properties back there...but I'd go for Newnham leafiness meself on balance.

All moot until this madness is over (and undone).

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HOLA4425

Hear hear. You can see why Newnham's so popular - lovely baker, butcher, deli, plus co-op; easy M11 access; great school (Newnham Croft) and nursery; 2 mins to Granchester meadows, 15 mins to town. Houses are small, though (I'm in a college one there for a year only). The bigger ones are simply ridiculously priced. I have a friend paying 2,400 pcm rent for a 2/3 bed terrace. That's considerably more than I earn! Mind you if I had infinite cash I'd probably move there. Eltisley Ave, out of choice. Or maybe Millington Rd, if cash really were infinite...

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