House prices don't tend to fall much, they stagnate but rarely fall. If people can't get the price they want they just don't sell instead of selling for less than they think it's worth. So all that happens is the total houses available for sale reduces and you're left with the ones that people have to sell which get reduced because they need the sale. All the people that want to sell but aren't desperate just wait because not only are they not getting the price they want for theirs but there are no good houses available for them to buy.
This sums up our current position Nano.
We had decided in late spring to try and capitalise on the price surge and downsize.
We got an acceptable offer slightly below what we had targeted.
The mini budget, interest rate surge, global energy crime, and inflation has resulted in lots of squeaky bums.
Our buyer is dragging heels and clearly wants to re-negotiate down, despite the Memorandum of Sale being explicitly clear that the sale price is fixed.
We don't need to sell and won't below what was agreed.
Other interest has died, so we are resigned to staying put for 3-4 years before we go again.
It's not a big deal for us, but I really feel for others who do need to sell in a falling market - and believe me it is.
The interest rate comparison thing is interesting - there are always arguments about who has/had it worse and there are many variables.
One thing remains true, that people have selective memories. Remember when people were moaning about endowment shortfalls, yet failed to equate that with collapsing interest rates on their mortgages and huge amounts of extra cash they had as a result, or how they pushed to houses they couldn't have otherwise have afforded.
