What A Difference A Year Makes
We have been very lapse at keeping Financebams’ financial news section up to date, but this is itself has given the subject of our first article in a while. You can clearly see the mood of the financial world from our previous posts, with none suggesting the downturn in economy or drop in house prices we have seen recently. In fact today see’s a unique time in the housing market as the US government effectively take control, albeit temporarily of the mortgage security companies in the USA, to try and give confidence back to the financial markets across the pond.
Depending on what source you believe, UK house prices have dropped from 5% to 35%, with a national building society mentioning 12.5 % recently over the last 12 months. The variation is due to locality, with even some Scottish areas showing an increase in property prices. With so many people having most of their wealth tied up in their home, we have to ask a question, who would sell their house in this current climate anyway, unless they had too. So are the prices, what is being asked or what is being achieved, and what type of home owners are affected, i.e. are these 2nd homes, or even buy to let properties.
As you walk around the private housing estates you are now finding home extensions popping up everywhere. Those who can afford to trade upwards are so worried of selling their own property, which they are choosing to stay put, but make their own home bigger.
The nickname of credit crunch, seems to staying put and now globally accepted, but as usual, it is understanding how much is this about consumer confidence and how much about a price readjustment, after all only 12 months ago, we thought we had a crisis that prevented first time buyers getting on the property ladder.