Housing market...how much has the market value dropped for your home?

[balladmaker]

Going by tonight's news, the north of Ireland was one of the worst areas for the collapse in the housing market in the whole of Europe.

How much do you think the value of your home as dropped in the market place?

I reckon my own is in the region of -35 to -40% down from its so called height, only an issue if I need to sell in the future.

[flantheman82]

Myself and the wife bought an apartment for 183,000 two and a half years ago in Belfast which was a fair price in them days. Nowadays there is a similar apartment for sale in the same street for 100,000.
we're caught by the balls. were only planning on staying there for 2 years then moving onto a house but we've no choice but to stick it out at the minute.

[maddog]

Hasnt dropped a bit.

[illdecide]

My house has dropped from £340,000 to about £225,000 but i only have a mortgage for about £100,000 so i'm not too bad, there is a few lads a lot worse off than me

[Bensars]

Two different aspects here.

1 the value of your house, that you are prepared to put it on the market for
2 the Value that the mortgage holder (bank) value it at.

[ludermor]

Or
3 The price someone is willing to pay
4 The likeihood that the person can get the finance from the bank

[Zapatista]

I reckon my own is in the region of -35 to -40% down from its so called height, only an issue if I need to sell in the future.

It's a problem if you go looking credit if you are paying morethan it's worth.

[flantheman82]

Well we were first time buyers and both in our mid 20's so got close to a 100% mortgage so like I said, no matter what way you look at it, we're caught by the balls.
Can't see any end in sight for next 10 years or so.

[maddog]

i feel sorry for those that bought at the top of the market, but at the same time im wondering what people back home were thinking. A house bought for 60k become 250k. Did folks really expect that to last ?

[Bensars]

However its a great time to buy  for for those who can get credit. The problem is that the lending institutions have made it very difficult with new policies and procedures.

[balladmaker]

It's a problem if you go looking credit if you are paying morethan it's worth.

Thankfully we bought 9 years ago, so are still well on the right side of negative equity thankfully.  In the strange situation where our mortgage lender values the house way above the current market value i.e. about 35k of a difference between the two, I found that strange.

[Ulick]

We're buying at the moment. Probably down about £120k of the height of the market but that was all fairytale stuff anyway. Up about £30k in real terms based on a valuation a few weeks back. Some good bargains to be had out there but a lot of vendors still being greedy/unrealistic about what they can expect.

We had a fair offer sitting on a property for the best part of last year (at least 9 months) and the vendor kept trying to screw an extra few grand out of us even though I'd moved towards him twice. I eventually got fed up with him shortly before Christmas and withdrew all my offers. Next thing I had the estate agent on the phone asking me to reconsider, then the vendor on the phone practically begging me to put my first offer back on the table. Then a week or two later the vendors wife was on the phone to say she didn't know he had asked me for more money and asking me to make the original offer again. Glad now I didn't there seems to be a lot more coming on the market now as people who were trying to hold out have finally bitten the bullet.

[donelli]

Bought at £230K, 5 years ago. Prices continued to climb to £300k.
Now they for sale at £200k (though probably wont shift until at least £160k)

Had intended to move around now but will try and surive in this one now.
Cos we are now staying, value doesnt matter, its can we afford the mortgage...
wife lost job last year and mine will probably go end of this....One big mess....

[take_yer_points]

Bought at £146000 a few years before the peak and a house down the street sold at £235000 at one stage.

2 houses on the street are now on the market at £145000 and £170000. I'd just be happy enough to hang about for another few years and then hopefully end up with a few quid towards a deposit for a new house.

I'm also very lucky at the minute as I'm on a tracker mortgage at 0.49% above the base rate. Reading the opinions from the "experts" seems to suggest that interest rates are going to stay at 0.5% for the majority of this year (if not into next year) and a neutral UK interest rate may lower from the original 5% (ish) to 4% (ish). With the additional capital I'm managing to pay off with the low rate I'm hopefully more than covering any further drops in prices (hopefully anyway!!)

[The Worker]

The maximum value for the north's property was a false value. unless you bought at this time you cannot say your property 'dropped' in value