News & Updates | Page 16 of 34

Most Rugeley homeowners born before 1960 have been in their homes for more than 25 years. Yet of all the properties sold in the UK since the first lockdown in the summer of 2020, 50% of those property owners had only been in their homes for six years and four months or less. That means we almost have a two speed housing market. One market of homeowners in their 20s and 30s who move every four to five years and another property market of homeowners who, when they hit their late 40s, tend to stay put for decades. Yet now those mature homeowners, many of whom are retired and on fixed incomes with pensions, are finding it a lot more challenging to make ends meet with the cost-of-living crisis. Evidence suggests nationally and locally, a lot of larger houses (property which tends to be owned by mature homeowners) have come onto the market in the last 12 months compared to the previous few years.

Doom and gloom in the British property market or clickbait doom-mongers? Newspapers and clickbait 24-7 news websites, desperate for clicks, are peddling a story of a doomsday time for the economy, particularly the property market, as interest rates and inflation create the perfect storm for the UK property market. So, let us look at what is happening in the British property market and whether house prices will drop.  

Last week the Bank of England increased interest rates to 2.25% and they are expected to be 3.25% by early next year. This increase will make the monthly mortgage payments more expensive for first-time buyers, an issue dubbed by some as the 'property affordability crunch.' It will also damage the household budgets of homeowners coming off their fixed-rate mortgages in the next 12 months.So how many homeowners are coming off their fixed rates in the next year?

Following the news that interest rates are to increase by 0.5% points to a new base rate of 2.25%  

Rugeley OAP retirees have to make tough choices with the onset of the cost-of-living crisis.   Growing inflation, unpredictable financial markets and the high cost of living mean many former retired Rugeley people are returning to work in what has been dubbed the ‘great unretirement’. Some are even bringing forward their downsizing house move.   Looking at the changing job market , July saw the most significant month-on-month rise in OAPs working since records began in the 1990s when 1 in 23 of all the UK’s OAPs went back into employment.   That now means ….

Looking at the newspapers with their doom and gloom headlines, you would think that the Rugeley property market (and the British property market) would be on its knees. Yet ring some Rugeley estate agents for a viewing or free valuation, and if you can get an appointment within a week to ten days, you are doing well! British properties continue to sell in good numbers.