UKC

""Trapped" and "frustrated" - This is how people describe being unable to sell homes whose values have yet to recover from the financial crisis that started more than a decade ago. House prices are lower in real terms than they were in 2007 in more than half of England and Wales, according to analysis for BBC News.

Those who wish to sell can find themselves with a home worth less than they paid for it, particularly in northern England. In the areas where values have continued to rise buyers are finding it impossible to find an affordable home, particularly in London and the South.

Interesting report from Aunty.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-41581824

Using the calculator provided tells me house prices in my area have fallen by 5.2% since 2007. However, they had a massive surge prior to that, and would need to fall substantially to put me in "negative equity".

In reply to Big Ger:

So, do you feel trapped and frustrated? I don't. Then again, I've only ever bought tents or paid rent. Or paid rent on tents. (Haven't done that for years, though.) Can you get negative equity on a tent, or do you just write it off and buy a new one? Just wondering.

In reply to DoctorYoghourt:


Me neither, seeing as I have no intention of selling up, and as I will return to live in the cottage next year.


Having rented over here for the past 15 years, it's not too bad. Don't know about tents soz.

In reply to DoctorYoghourt:

Shouldn’t your name be doctor hogyurt?

In reply to Big Ger:

Why have you written "negative equity" and not just negative equity?

Do you not think it's real?

In reply to XXXX:

Of course it's real, but does it exist when I have no intent to sell?

In reply to Big Ger:


Yes, it's just not of any interest or worry for you. As alluded to further up-thread, only those who've bought recently knowing they'd have to sell in the near future or as an investment are affected by it.

In reply to Big Ger:

The BBC says that house prices in my area have fallen by 24%. When I check out the average price of houses in my area using zoopla, I can see that they have risen by 24.5%. Obviously, you have to take account of inflation which, over the ten years since 2007, has been 33% (figures from ONS).

So the average price of a house, in my area, in 2007 was £181,046. According to inflation this should now be £240,791 (a rise of £59,745) but, according to Zoopla it is only £225,686 ( a rise of only £44,640). Now, the difference between those two rises may well be approximately 24% but that is NOT the same as "house prices have fallen by 24%", in my opinion.

By my calculation, the worst that can be said to have happened is that house prices, in real terms, have fallen by about 8.3%, this being calculated by dividing the difference between the rises (inflation and actual) by the average price in 2007.

Does anyone agree, or am I just talking out of my @rse?