Just wondered if anybody had seen any evidence of a slowdown in any of these areas, houses sticking, price drops etc.

Any opinions of what will happen, as some think St. Albans will be immune being a relatively desirable area

Would also be interested if anybody knows what happened in this area last time, i've heard a few anecdotals over the years but I was a bit too young to be interested at the time.

Last time around two bed terrace in St Albans in a probably less than average desirable road went from £90-95,000 to £60-65,000 between 1989 to 1992/3. Not sure what they are now, must be c£275,000. Maybe a fair bit more. I'm out of touch, moved out as it is now a nightmare for traffic IMO, and centre a disaster at night at w/es. I moved to East Herts and much prefer it, but depends what you want. If the City has a tough time - sorry, the City is now having a tough time - will be plenty of overstretched owners, so could even be worse than average.

Top end saw loads on the market in last downturn, so the road I bought in, having seen at most one on the market at a time, had 6 on when I bought, was able to bid the vendors off against each other.

Most people I have discussed it with now accept that house prices are not going up anymore.

Some even accept that there might be a crash now, but they still believe St. Albans will be immune.

I do know a couple of people trying to sell in the area at the moment without success, but they will not accept that the price is the problem.

My only real memory of the last crash was a friend some years older than myself, had to sell his flat in WGC, had been paying the mortgage for about 5 years, and still went back to his parents house at the age of 30, owing about £10k !!

I suspect Welwyn & Hatfield would be much harder hit than St. Albans, but I don't have any evidence to back this up, as I have little memory of what happened round here last time.

I moved away from St Albans at new year, the guy I was renting with went and bought a house.

1 bed semi detached shoe box in Jersey Farm area. £185,000

Yes, you read that right.

Anyway, he seems to be of the same as opinion as 'people'... "prices wont drop in this area" and of course "anyway, it's different this time"

Unfortunately, I am not suprised by that price.

I live in the area and I know how mad things have got !!

I just hope that when the market completely seizes up & nothing is selling, that prices will come tumbling down !!

BUMP

Come on people, somebody on here must have an interest in this area.

St. Albans is apparently now one of the most desirable / expensive places in the country, its even on the monopoly board now !!

How about you 'Financial Planner' ?? I know you live in E. Herts, but have you got any knowledge or opinions on the St. Albans area ?

I've been using Property Bee on the area for a while now just out of interest. A few drops here and there, but nothing to write home about... yet

Been monitoring the 500-900 price range in central St Albans for a few months.

Market has ground to a halt in terms of LR sales, think there were only around 3-5 sales in December LR figures.
Property bee showing quite a few 5% reductions , perhaps 5% of the total stock in this price range have now been dropped.

However a number (6ish) flipped from Available to Under Offer in the last week, Spring bounce might be having a limited effect.
We'll have to see if the chains hold up.

There is however lot of stock coming onto the market all price bands, 22 total in the last 24 hours. There were 32 on Friday.

Its overpriced - very.

Check this out

Number of sales are down heavily since last August, so i'm guessing prices will have to follow eventually.

...and these figures are only up to January !! It can only have got worse in the last couple of months.


http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_...mp;endyear=2008

I live in this area and have been watching house prices for a while. They haven't really moved for ages, up or down. The only thing that has gone up is the number of EA signs. There seems to be an oversupply of over priced housing round here atm and a distinct lack of demand. Price equilibrium must be attained somehow.

St A in particular seems vunerable to any downturn in London prices as most of the inhabitants are London commuters, who moved to the outskirts as it was too expensive. Any decrease in London prices will lead to people moving back to avoid excessive transport cost & time.

My opinion: why would you buy now? Rent, it's cheaper. Buy when prices are more realistic. I think there will be a significant reuction in prices over the next 12-18 months (c 40% - 50%).

Don't worry matey I won't be buying anything for a good while yet.

I'm just saving, saving, saving !!

If this thing gets really bad, and alot of jobs go, I may need the money just to live, let alone buying a house.


BTW- Welcome to the forum 'Pytyr' and anything you can add to this thead would be much appreciated.

Does anyone know what their building next to the t mobile building? It looks like a huge development.