House value compared to 4 years ago. Up or down

[Hoonabator]

What would you say higher, lower or the same.

Nice condition house in a nice area, nice road. (Did hear that the town had the lowest mortgage property percentage in the UK but that could be wrong lots of retired folk)

Property is sub 250k. I've been offered it for what the chap paid 4 years ago, I figure it's a good buy.

Any thoughts???

[Spudler]

Prices now are generally (a lot in some areas) lower than early '07.
Check on Zoopla http://www.zoopla.co.uk/

[davidjpowell]

what you need is a local surveyor not a guess on a website! No-one can be even approaching accuracy on the detail supplied.

2007 was when values peaked though. How far they have come back depends on the area. Whether they are going to dip again depends on a lot.

[Paul Drawmer]

Put the post code in here:
http://www.houseprices.co.uk/
Scroll back to 4 years ago, and compare the prices.

The prices shown on this site are the land registry transaction price.

Edited by Paul Drawmer on Tuesday 15th February 18:51

[Carlique]

www.houseprices.co.uk is'nt really that accurate in my opinion, I just had my house valued by an estate agency however this website is is showing the house next door to mine ( very similar sized houses/gardens) as being valued, nearly a quarter less of the value of mine.

[touching cloth]

Too many variables at play - 4 years ago the guy could have been a right mug and overpaid on a theoretical "real" value, or he could have been a demon negotiator and netted himself a bargain, he could have spent £100k renovating what was a wreck or it could have 4 years heavy wear and tear on what was a showhome 4 years ago.
Sure it's always interesting to see what someone paid previously for a house you are buying, but it's not something you should judge your offer price on in any way.

[miniman]

Carlique said:

www.houseprices.co.uk is'nt really that accurate in my opinion, I just had my house valued by an estate agency however this website is is showing the house next door to mine ( very similar sized houses/gardens) as being valued, nearly a quarter less of the value of mine.

Mine was just valued for remortgage purposes at £345k, that site lists it at £334k so it does seem on the low side.

However next door is now "worth" £30k less than they paid for it, and that also stacks up as next door the other side just sold for £50k less than they paid.

The fact that over the same period mine has incresed by £46k over what I paid suggests that timing is everything.

[Zod]

Good London areas are well up on 2007 levels. Not the case in most other places.

[Paul Drawmer]

Carlique said:

www.houseprices.co.uk is'nt really that accurate in my opinion, I just had my house valued by an estate agency however this website is is showing the house next door to mine ( very similar sized houses/gardens) as being valued, nearly a quarter less of the value of mine.

The point about that site is that it is accurate. It isn't a guess, or an estimate. It shows the actual price that the property was sold for.

[davidjpowell]

Paul Drawmer said:

The point about that site is that it is accurate. It isn't a guess, or an estimate. It shows the actual price that the property was sold for.

None of these sites are any use. In this example it shows the price paid at a specific time. It does not show whether it was a diy disaster, whether it was pre-extension, or if the vendor was desperate to sell or stupid, or equally whether the purchaser was out of his mind.

All of these sites use averages, which depending on the amount of houses and the type can be wildly inaccurate.

They are more useful when you know the house types, and are recent transactions and you are comfortable that nothing else is different.

To rely on these, you have been listening to too much of Martin Lewis.

[Carlique]

Paul Drawmer said:

The point about that site is that it is accurate. It isn't a guess, or an estimate. It shows the actual price that the property was sold for.

Yeah I suppose, but It's only useful for specific houses, not for general post code price fluctuations which I guess is what I'm looking for as my house hasn't recently been bought.

[Paul Drawmer]

All the above comments are valid. There's no single way to look up a current value of a house. However, it is a decent start point in some circumstances.

Valuations can vary wildly.
Some estate agents will value the property generously to give the vendor a warm feeling in an attempt to get the business. Only to have to drop it when it has stagnated on the market for a while.
Sometimes a lender valuation will be low in an attempt to protect their interest in the collateral in an uncertain market.

[Engineer1]

Paul Drawmer said:

Put the post code in here:
http://www.houseprices.co.uk/
Scroll back to 4 years ago, and compare the prices.

The prices shown on this site are the land registry transaction price.

Edited by Paul Drawmer on Tuesday 15th February 18:51

Land registry prices can be wrong, the flat below us sold for Circa £64K from what the owner told us the land registry has it down at circa £95K.

[davidjpowell]

Paul Drawmer said:

All the above comments are valid. There's no single way to look up a current value of a house. However, it is a decent start point in some circumstances.

Valuations can vary wildly.
Some estate agents will value the property generously to give the vendor a warm feeling in an attempt to get the business. Only to have to drop it when it has stagnated on the market for a while.
Sometimes a lender valuation will be low in an attempt to protect their interest in the collateral in an uncertain market.

A valuation will never be 'low' for this reason. The definitino of Market Value is strict and cannot be played with. Landers will sometimes ask for Estimated Realisation Price, which allows for a quick sale, within a defined mareting period. This will usually be lower tham MV.

A valuation may be lower because the valuer does not agree that the house is worth that much dosh.

I would not suggest an Estate Agents valuation in the OP scenario. They will spend the entire time persuading him to sell it.

[Hoonabator]

Ha, what a minefield.

I've found this site is much more user friendly

http://www.findaproperty.com/house-prices.html

You can sort the listing by road so you can see what sold on the same road, when and for how much. Looked at my previous sales and buys and it's spot on.

The road the house is on only one other house of the same type has since sold. 10 months later for 10% more. Not enough info to get a proper idea.

I agree with posting on here isn't going to give me an answer but was after a more general idea on wheather prices are up or down since then. Impossible to say really, these houses are a bit like cars I suppose in that they are worth whatever someone is willing to spend.

[Zod]

Hoonabator said:

Ha, what a minefield.

I've found this site is much more user friendly

http://www.findaproperty.com/house-prices.html

You can sort the listing by road so you can see what sold on the same road, when and for how much. Looked at my previous sales and buys and it's spot on.

The road the house is on only one other house of the same type has since sold. 10 months later for 10% more. Not enough info to get a proper idea.

These sites only give useful information if your road is made up of similar houses. If not, they are close to useless, unless they have sales of the same property over a few years.

[Hub]

We just accepted an offer on our house that we have owned for pretty much exactly four years. The offer is £3k less than we paid for it back then (and we had no work done on the house apart from some cheap double glazing, knowing we weren't staying long). It did take 8 months to get that offer though, and I am pretty happy with it...

[andy43]