Mate, i used to put a lot of faith in the price and prediction reports etc from various companies but i have found nothing replaces on the ground feeling for sentiment and current sale prices.
Property market sentiment can change in a month and the reports from RP Data et al just dont reflect the changes.
A couple of months can be a long time or a short time on the property market. At the moment its a short time.
Heres an example: In the period of say 2001 to 2003 property prices were rising fast just about everywhere. I was actively looking for property. I spoke to lots of agents in that period and lot of them were listing property at inflated prices. I was inquiring about this and a common line was "we price it above the market an wait for the market to rise to the price and sell"
This would happen within weeks, or a month and this tactic went a long way to fuelling the price boom i'd say.
Now, if i was relying on reports a couple months old i would have been mislead as property prices were rising so fast i would have put in offers and missed out (which exactly what happened as i was trying to get bargains)
I ended up paying asking price (or even a little over) most the time. Crazy times indeed.
At this point, the reverse could be happening. I don't know as i'm not active in the market. But i think prices are falling fast in a lot of areas. Too fast for a lot of reports.
Property market sentiment can change in a month and the reports from RP Data et al just dont reflect the changes.
A couple of months can be a long time or a short time on the property market. At the moment its a short time.
Heres an example: In the period of say 2001 to 2003 property prices were rising fast just about everywhere. I was actively looking for property. I spoke to lots of agents in that period and lot of them were listing property at inflated prices. I was inquiring about this and a common line was "we price it above the market an wait for the market to rise to the price and sell"
This would happen within weeks, or a month and this tactic went a long way to fuelling the price boom i'd say.
Now, if i was relying on reports a couple months old i would have been mislead as property prices were rising so fast i would have put in offers and missed out (which exactly what happened as i was trying to get bargains)
I ended up paying asking price (or even a little over) most the time. Crazy times indeed.
At this point, the reverse could be happening. I don't know as i'm not active in the market. But i think prices are falling fast in a lot of areas. Too fast for a lot of reports.
Evan, I don't think TC is being unreasonable asking you to come up with a few actual figures as opposed to just saying you know what's happening cos you're in the market experiencing it. So am I, but I can throw some specific figures out there when it's needed.