Is the Housing Crash Over?

The housing market crash of 2009 has been tied in with the economic downturn of the last 12 months. There have been some promising signs recently which have led to some institutions declaring that all is on the up. With the property market however it's never quite as simple as that.

The centre for Economics and Business research have stated that there may be a small rise in house prices in the next quarter. That doesn't mean its over though as trends from the last crash in the nineties have shown that prices will fluctuate up and down from time to time.

The old problem of housing shortages is actually making things look more rosy than they actually are. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has stated that supply seems to be outstripping demand at the moment. At the moment they are seeing only 8% of surveyors reporting price drops which they think is due to the shortage.

In Scotland there has been a housing shortage for years which has failed to be addressed. That could now actually be helping the buyers and the sellers in the future. What is happening at the moment in the Scottish Market is that more estate and rental agents in Glasgow especially are filling their windows with rental properties which should help ensure their survival until the market recovers.

The banks are still not lending as freely as they once were which can make the recovery an even slower and more painful one. Its tough to say whether the crash is over but it's fair to say that there are more signs of hope in the market than there's been so far this past year.