The number of new residential loans has fallen from 280,000 in the third quarter of 2007 to just 122,000 in the same three months this year.
This is a fall of 56% with a fall in total values of around 60%.
In the boom years about 1,600,000 homes changed hands, now only 750,000 are being sold.
People are staying put for three main reasons:-
1) The state of the economy (cannot get a mortgage, cannot sell)
2)
The huge costs involved (legal fees, removal cost and stamp duty etc)
3) House price instability (no one will buy my house for what an estate agent said it was worth in 2007)
The Rightmove house price index charting asking prices, reported a 1.7% drop (£4,138) - the largest July fall in four years.
They reported that those selling outnumber buyers by 2:1 and the average asking price is £242,097.
The office of national statistics state the average house price in England was £237,000 in May 2012 which would indicate that sellers need to further drop asking prices by even more, around 2.2% to be realistic.
