How to spot the bottom of the housing market

How to spot the bottom of the housing market

Lots of people are desperate to know when the bottom of the 'the market' comes. Many people will give you their view, but the truth is that no-one can predict the bottom of any market until after it has already happened!

It's also a bit pointless waiting for the bottom of the market to buy. There are two reasons for this. Firstly you may miss out buying the home that you want and secondly, why not just offer a price that takes into account any likely further falls?

Many buyers who are trading up benefit in a falling market as they can afford properties that would otherwise be out of their price range. This does rely on you being able to sell your own home and in current credit crunch conditions have the equity and deposit required to secure a decent mortgage.

The other key consideration is which market are we looking for the bottom of? The London or Edinburgh market? The market for 1930s homes? New builds? Listed buildings? A self build plot of land? The truth is there are thousands of different property markets and they will all 'bottom' out at different times over the coming year or two.

Follow our guide on 'How to spot if your property market is bottoming out'

Step One

Work out what the market is for the property you want to buy. It might be three bedroom homes within a three mile radius or it might a farmhouse in a village location.

Step Two

List how many properties you are interested in that are for sale and how many have sold over the last three months.

Step Three

Idenitfy two or three roads that have homes that you are looking to purchase and monitor weekly and monthly how many homes their are for sale and sold.

Step Four

Check out Hometrack to see in your postcode whether viewings, time to sell and the offer versus market price percentage are changing towards a faster moving market.

Step Five

Once you see that the number of homes for sale versus sold is starting to 'balance' and properties that haven't sold for some time are starting to come off the market, then it's likely that the market you are buying in is starting to bottom out. The biggest indicator is when people start competing for good properties in good locations.

© Designs On Property Ltd

For more information on buying and selling a home and the market, visit www.designsonproperty.co.uk.