A recent survey revealed that homeowners trying to sell their homes have had to reduce their asking price by more than £4,000 in just the past few weeks. Reductions prior to this survey may show an even greater drop in asking prices. In fact, the average asking price decreased anywhere from £4,345 to £235,219 between the months of June and July to maintain any intrigue by potential buyers since most are staying away from the struggling housing market.
Some have blamed banks for the slow housing market today claiming that banks are overly cautious. One sign of this is the steady decline in mortgages on the market. The number of available mortgage deals has dropped to 3,800 compared to more than 12,000 last year. However, for buyers able to secure a mortgage and purchase a home, they will appreciate the reduction in asking prices which is now approximately two percent less than the previous year.
Sellers are finding that selling a home is similar to a competition. They must undercut their rival sellers to keep ahead of the competition and attract potential buyers. In today’s housing market, though, sellers are being forced to apply this strategy immediately. Testing the market and reducing the asking price months into the process is no longer the most effective strategy. It is important that sellers understand the concept of opportunity cost. Pricing aggressively at the onset could provide a much higher selling price as opposed to waiting since prices overall will continue to decline.
The reduced number of potential buyers has also trickled down to affect real estate agents who are accustomed to a higher profit in the spring and summer seasons. The number of unsold houses has increased significantly. Figures from the Land Registry show that the number of residential property transactions has dropped by fifty percent since last year.
Some mortgage brokers have recently started to cut their rates but this should not be a sign of economic hope for consumers looking for a light at the end of this dark economic tunnel. Experts hold to the belief that the housing market will continue to fall before it improves. Unfortunately, this tends to be the common attitude among experts in other markets as well which is contributing to the threats of recession for the UK and globally.
Consumers looking to purchase a home are trying to do so on less purchasing power in not only the housing market but also with regard to basic expenses such as food, petrol and utilities. Less discretionary income results in less cash on hand to cover the expenses of purchasing a home. Perhaps this is why online opportunities have become so popular. Consumers can maintain their full-time work while earning extra money in the convenience of their own home without the need to work long hours on the weekends or evenings at a second job.
One such opportunity is sports arbitrage trading, which emerges from gaming, the largest growing industry on the internet. With the use of new software, traders can scan prices globally in seconds to uncover risk-free betting opportunities providing guaranteed returns of as much as 12% each month. ArbAlarm is one of the more popular software programs used in this industry. Beyond the returns, arbitrage trading also enjoys profits not subject to tax thanks to the UK government’s recent announcement that these profits will remain free from income tax and capital gains tax.
A great source of information about arbitrage trading is the book Sports-Arbitrage – How to Place Riskless Bets and Create Tax-Free Investments. As a former trader, the author Rajeev Shah provides those new to the art of gaming all of the tools and information they need to begin enjoying the risk-free, guaranteed profits of arbitrage trading. You will leave the book with a better understanding of how the internet serves as a platform for transparent price discovery and how this can work for your benefit.
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