This is currently the best tactic in the housing market

(if you can even afford a house)

The best man looked at me as if I suddenly spoke Greek to him. ‘So you sold your house and now you're renting?‘ Yes sir, that's about the gist of it. Sometimes I hesitate a bit when I see the disbelief in someone's eyes, but then I quickly think of the (for me) reassuring news about the housing market.

In the Netherlands, it is the norm to buy a house and then sit on top of it. As if owning a house is the highest achievable goal. When you look at the prices, there is certainly nothing untrue about that high. But is that still the case or is a small house swap not so crazy after all? And: what is the best tactic at this moment?

The prices were good, we were no longer tied to the area, so it was a logical decision for us to sell our house. And now we are temporarily renting something and will see where that long breath takes us. It may be that things stabilize, which is fine, but it could also be that the market becomes just a bit more favorable for buyers, which I hope for. Of course, it's all guesswork, because what do the experts actually say?

Last week I read in NRC about a ‘bend’ in the prices on the market, which amounts to the house prices rising, rising, rising and now starting to bend and fall. For the first time in years. The decline in house prices in the third quarter is 5.8 percent (!) compared to the previous quarter, reported the real estate association NVM. That may not seem huge yet, but take a house worth three hundred thousand and you're looking at a difference of 17,500 euros. That's quite a bit of money. It's the first time since 2013 that the decline is so significant. Back then, I was still partly living off my student grant, so those were different times. Those falling prices are a direct result of the exorbitant energy prices and rising mortgage rates. ABN expects house prices to drop by 2.5 percent next year, while ING even predicts a drop of 4.5 percent.

Once I heard a realtor say that a buyer determines the value of a house. After all, it’s about what the buyer is willing to pay. That principle seemed a bit lost in the overheated housing market, but is now starting to return. New build houses are no longer selling like hotcakes, because materials are ridiculously expensive, and even the bidding wars seem to be stabilizing. But still, realtors say you should especially not wait to buy, because the market gets busier when house prices drop and there is a housing shortage. Is that really true? Because that also sounds a bit like preaching to one's own choir. The higher the price of a house, the more the realtor pockets. Right?

There is not one simple answer to this question, because your situation is not mine, but the rising mortgage rates could indicate that the price declines will continue in 2023, according to economist Notten from CBS. And the economists from Rabobank also expect the decline to continue. A doomsday scenario, according to experts, is what we are doing, first selling and then waiting. So here are my apologies for that.

Source: NVM, RTL, Linda