Hip Hip Hooray!
0 Comments | Essex Chronicle; Chelmsford (UK), Jun 17, 2010
The evil document is dead and the world is a better place for that. After all, to read the tabloids, it was only the HIP that was stopping the housing market from making a full recovery and solving all our problems!
I wonder though? Many commentators have said that the slump in the market caused by the recession, about 15% on average, was less than expected. There are probably two reasons for this; The dramatic drop in interest rates meant for many homeowners, hard pressed for cash by the recession, that their biggest outgoing – the mortgage, actually dropped to an all time low. This has prevented repossessions on a massive scale, which would have flooded an unresponsive market with property.
Secondly the recovery of the market which occurred in late 2009 was a result of the actual shortage of property coming on to the market. Those few buyers around started competing for property, which caused prices to level off and so signalled the end of the property price crash.
So where does the Hip fit in with this? Well without doubt one effect of the HIP was to stop people at the lower end of the market putting their house on the market speculatively
stop repossession