"JK" wrote in message ...
nightjar nightjar@ wrote:
"JK" wrote in message
...
...

However, it looks like it's turning into a buyer's marker, so perhaps you
should be focusing on your purchaser and worrying less about finding
somewhere - if prices take a tumble then you will see a lot more on the
market all of a sudden.


All that is happening now is that prices are not increasing as
dramatically as they have been over the past few years, but are levelling
out. There is no reason to expect that prices will start to fall at all,
much less that they will tumble. When prices did drop suddenly last time,
houses tended to be less available at first, because people did not want
to sell at a loss. It was only as people had to sell and prices stayed
low, that the number of properties on the market rose, mainly because
buyers with negative equity could not afford to buy.

This is certainly a subject that has been and will be done to death. I was
pondering the prospect of a fall in the shower this morning, and I suspect
you're right, as rates are still very low historically and there's always
a slowdown in the colder months. But there are other factors that could
make a difference -for example there are a lot of investment properties
that could suddenly go on the market. Having just bought a bigger place, I
certainly hope there isn't too much of a fall!

I've just sold my late mother's house to someone who seems to own most of
the neighbourhood. While she plans to live in the house I've sold her, the
rest are investment properties and she says that she has no intention of
putting those onto the market yet. She would want the prices to go up quite
a bit before the profit from the sales becomes more attractive than the
income from the rentals.

Colin Bignell