A new survey by Impartial.co.uk says we are all seriously overestimating the current value of our homes – and that younger homeowners especially are in denial about falling home values.

Apparently the average younger homeowner thinks their property is worth – oh, about £2,000 more than it was a couple of months ago. (Maybe they added a wet room.)

Well, this is awkward. Actually, kids – your property is more likely to be valued at… er, around £7,000 less. Sorry about that.

Of course it would be unfair to put the spotlight on the iPod set alone. Many sellers are only now starting to realise that it’s necessary to lower their asking price if they want to move house any time soon.

Savvy Londoners apparently have a more realistic view of things, estimating their property values to have fallen by around £46,000 on average. I can only imagine this pragmatic point of view is due in part to growing up fast on the mean streets of Mayfair.

The Primelocation.com September House Price Index shows that prime London values have decreased for the fourth month running, dropping nearly 1.8% since August. The decline in house prices has been quite widely documented.

So why are the majority of us still in denial about the value of our homes? And why younger people especially?

Here are some possible reasons:

• We’ve been too obsessed with Obamarama to notice what else is happening in the world
• Anytime our eyes alight on a newspaper article about falling house prices, they’re quickly distracted by a photo of Amy Winehouse looking dangerously malnourished on the opposite page
• The Olympics dazzled us for a month or so with shiny opening and closing ceremonies – not to mention all the sports and whatnot. Blame China.

Any other ideas?

house prices

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under House Prices, Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.