How far and how long will house prices come down?

Question

Are we just at the tip of the iceberg?

Answer 1

Who knows but I'm guessing 1-2 more years and 10-20% more on average (though some areas have hit bottom and some may go down further), but that then prices will flatten for many years (maybe 3) before heading back up.  That is just a completely unsubstantiated guess on my part (and really just for my area).

Answer 2

There’s no crystal ball for that. Real estate is always regional, and how big of a chance you’ll see really depends on your own market. If you have a basic understanding of the business cycle, you’ll realize that ups & downs are normal. The problem some markets are experiencing is that their most recent up cycles were anything but normal.

You should be seeing annual price increases of around 2%, but some places were seeing 10, 15, 20% increases in a single year. That’s not something that can be sustained and eventually the market has to correct for it. The places that had such appreciation are going to suffer longer, larger corrections. Regions that had typical growth might not be seeing any substantial changes at all.

I live in a place like that. I’d be lying if I said there’s been no changes in our local market, but it’s more about consumer confidence here (i.e. people need to start looking at their own realities instead of letting the evening news tell them everything is “bad” economically) rather than actual inability to buy or sell.  

Answer 3

It will continue to go down, but we don't have a definite time frame as to how long.

I just hope that everything will turn around the way it should be, because there are many people out there who have lost their houses and job.  So hopefully miracles will come soon.

Answer 4

well theres honestly no way to know for sure, but i personally think that since the economy is doing so poorly and the unemployment rate is rapidly climbing that we are still going to keep going down for at least the next couple years...then come back strong. but we still have a  while.

Answer 5

There is a great deal more uncertainty and pain to come.

Answer 6

There are too many factors for anyone to know accurately, but I took a look at a house price graph for the UK, and extrapolated the curve and got a shock...

http://www.thecreditcruncher.com/2008/08...

According to my (admittedly sketchy) prediction house prices could fall by 50% between now and 2015...

This is just based on UK figures, see if you can find average prices for your own area and see what you come up with...