For Sale and Sold Boards

How to find out what's happening in your local property market

When you want to have a good idea of what's happening in your local market, as long as there are no restrictions in your area, working out how many properties are for sale and sold, and comparing this to historic data can really help.

Counting boards is something which agents often use to measure their own local market share. However it's an incredibly useful way of working out whether it's going to be easy or difficult to buy or sell a property in your market. 


READ MORE for Three steps to work out if it will be easy or difficult to buy or sell a property

What Impact will another Recession have on the Property Market?

Future Market

Predicting the property market is about as difficult as predicting the weather - and expert forecasts are rarely accurate. We know that over the next five years, in most areas, property prices are likely to recover, but within the next year or two, without a clear picture of how hard a recession could hit and to what level unemployment will rise, let alone unknown impacts of the Eurozone crisis on our banks and property market, it is tough to work out what will happen within the next six to twelve months. However below we go through key indicators which can influence prices.

READ ON for the full Future Property Market analysis

Current Market: 2012 a Good Year to Buy?

House Prices 2012

This year the usual doom and gloom merchants Capital Economics and Jonathan Davis are still saying property prices will fall by 5% (CE) or up to -12% (JD). These two companies are typically very ‘downbeat' about the market and have been since 2000! Other predictions suggest property prices will rise by up to 3%.

So, depending on whether we hit an economic recession in 2012 and how deep it is will determine whether prices show a little bit of growth or a small decline. If things get really rough with high unemployment levels, a sharp rise in repossessions and say a rise in interest rates, then it may be that the real doom and gloom forecasts of 5% or more falls could exist by the year end.

READ MORE to find out whether 2012 is a Good Year to Buy?