You arrived at this page by selecting:Paying Deposits Could Help the Housing Market (YEP 08/09/08 and T & A 9/09/08)
The housing market as we all know by now is less than buoyant and first time buyers are finding it very difficult to get on the ladder - even more so now with the credit crunch. The credit crunch seems to have put a stop to the myriad of mortgages that was once available in the marketplace. It has also made it incredibly difficult for first time buyers to secure a 100% mortgage. With mortgage lenders tightening their credit criteria, every penny counts for those who are looking to move home or buy their first property.
As house prices have fallen sellers have had no choice but to drop their asking prices in line with percentage falls. Some sellers understand that it really doesn't make a difference if they drop their house price because they can re-coup their loss at the other end if they are buying something for the same price or trading up. If you are trading up then the price of the house you are buying will certainly need to have been reduced too therefore you will be paying less for it and what you lose at one end you gain at the other, even more so sometimes.
Some sellers however are taking themselves out of the market altogether or just clinging on in the hopes that the market will change and they will get their asking prices eventually. After all we have experienced a buoyant market for a number of years so a depressed market will take a little while to get used to. But how can we help? One example for sellers who don't want to look desperate by slashing their asking prices are offering to pay the deposit for buyers to enable them to secure a 90% or 95% mortgage.
Other seller solutions are offering to pay all or part of the stamp duty. Many would then find that they could afford to move or in the case of first time buyers meet lenders' criteria. There has even been a whisper of the government suspending stamp duty on lower-cost homes but whether this will actually happen or not I'm not so sure.
There are bargains and benefits to moving in a market like this so If you think it's a bad time to move then maybe you should re-think. You might be getting ahead of the game and after all those who are in the market at the moment are very serious about moving. There are certainly less time wasters. Incidentally if you are looking to take the first run on the housing market ladder Wilsons are offering all our First Time Buyer clients 20% discount on conveyancing - just to give them an extra helping hand when they need it most.
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