House prices crash in the Blackburn area (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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House prices crash in the Blackburn area
4:00pm Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in News
By Bill Jacobs, Local government reporter
It's a buyers' market on the property market
HOUSE prices in the Blackburn area have plummeted by more than a quarter in the last five years, the third worst drop in the country, new figures reveal.
Official Land Registry statistics show that the average cost of a home in the borough has fallen by 26.2 per cent from £97,802 in September 2007 to £72,171 last month.
Across England and Wales the price of the average home rose by 0.7 per cent to £163,376 between September 2007 and 2012.
The fall is also considerably worse than the North West average for the period of 19.2 per cent and the rest of Lancashire’s 22 per cent drop.
Blackburn MP Jack Straw described the shock figure as ‘both worrying and an opportunity’.
He said: “The fall is obviously a worry for people with homes who are in negative equity.
“But they are an opportunity for people who want to buy a good quality home in Blackburn. I shall certainly be looking into them.”
Craig Pickles, managing director of Proctor’s Estate Agents in Blackburn, said: “There are certain areas in every town where prices hold up nicely, and other areas that take a bit of stick.
“Where you have an area with a high percentage of terraced properties there has been a price correction, as at the moment, there is more supply than demand because people trying to get on the property ladder are struggling to get mortgages and deposits.
“However, lower prices mean that you get more value for money, and the cost of running a property is more affordable. In theory, people should have more disposable income and a better quality of life.”
A spokesman for Hilary’s Estate Agent in Blackburn said: “It’s terraced houses that are most affected in Blackburn. People don’t want to live in areas where the cheapest houses are, and so the price of those houses comes down even more.”
Blackburn with Darwen council executive board member for resources Andy Kay said: “As an authority we are doing all we can to regenerate the borough which should have a knock on effect on house prices.”
Tory leader Mike Lee said: “I would say this is a problem for people with negative equity who cannot afford to sell at a loss and then block up the housing ladder.”
The figure was highlighted by financial firm The Castle Trust which is offering a new type of “Partnership Mortgage” to help get the housing market in Blackburn and other areas with falling property prices moving.
Blackburn with Darwen’s average home price continued in freefall last year with a 4.1 per cent drop compared to falls of 2.4 per cent in Blackpool, 3.2 in Lancashire and 2.5 across the North-West.
In the month between July and August this year home values rose by 0.4 per cent in the North-West but fell by 3.6 per cent in Blackburn with Darwen suggesting the property price collapse in the borough was gaining pace.
Nationwide the worst drop was Blackpool at 29.4 per cent with Oldham second at 26.9 per cent.
At the Labour Party Conference in Manchester yesterday Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls called for urgent action to kick-start the housing market by introducing a two year stamp duty holiday for all properties worth less than £250,000.
Comments are closed on this article.
Comments (61)
4:24pm Tue 2 Oct 12
vanmanstan says...
4:30pm Tue 2 Oct 12
Mr Purple says...
It's a shame that reasonable people cannot have informed discussion about this issue owing to any opinion being hijacked.
Our first home was on Snow Street, we were the last white family to leave the street. We moved to the billinge area of town and were one of the last white families to leave to go to where we are now, Brownhill. I now go into my back yard in my negative equity terrace house and once more I am able to smell that familar odour of an eastern meal being prepared. (Most days, for most of the day!). Can't say anything about it because that would make me a racist.
I just never figured that I would become an ethnic minority without ever leaving the town of my birth and now I can't leave because I am trapped by negative equity. Never mind, the Imam from the mosque will come along in a few years and tell me what my house is worth. At least then the local authority will pile loads of cash into the area to improve it.
England, the land of milk and honey.
4:53pm Tue 2 Oct 12
Joseph O'M says...
Read this report here on the Housing Market Renewal programme... http://www.savebrita
insheritage.org/news
/campaign.php?id=191
5:09pm Tue 2 Oct 12
BRFCBrabant says...
5:18pm Tue 2 Oct 12
oldblue says...
5:35pm Tue 2 Oct 12
Chris P Bacon says...
5:36pm Tue 2 Oct 12
DEO VOLENTE says...
Deus Vobiscum
5:39pm Tue 2 Oct 12
255.255.255.0 says...
Yes, Blackburn has a high Asian count, but 90% of England and wales is still white. If you don’t like it, there’s a million other places around the UK you can go to. But always remember, Where ever you go, We will always be there, Just another human being of different colour in your local takeaway, your taxi man, Your shopping centre. In the panorama programme, it was very evident, that a lot of the white community didn’t want to work. To lazy to work. ‘Rather live on benefits’ was the answer to everything. Have poppers, smoke weed and get leathered on alcohol. Reminded me of Shameless.
5:55pm Tue 2 Oct 12
oldblue says...
6:26pm Tue 2 Oct 12
ghost of sceptic says...
6:35pm Tue 2 Oct 12
jack daniels says...
Your comments are also bigoted, and racist, implying that white communities are lazy and use drugs.
ALL asian areas in Blackburn have a very high percentage claiming benefits, significant drugs use/dealing and don't forget that there are more asians in prison than whites as a percentage of the population as a whole.
Hows that for mud slinging?
6:49pm Tue 2 Oct 12
jack daniels says...
If you ask an immigrant why they come to the UK, they will say its for a better life. People of Blackburn that can afford to move will move for this exact same reason. Realistically, the only people buying houses in Blackburn are either businessmen, who will rent out to whoever or whatever, or members of the asian community who are well aware of the current market trends and can haggle with the best of ‘em. This in turn slighty contributes to the lower the price of housing in this town.
PS. While I’m here
House for sale. 4 bedrooms, twin garage with en suit to master bedroom.
6:54pm Tue 2 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
7:03pm Tue 2 Oct 12
Martinkerry says...
7:35pm Tue 2 Oct 12
2 for 5p says...
Ho thats cheared me up. :-)
7:47pm Tue 2 Oct 12
oldblue says...
8:14pm Tue 2 Oct 12
255.255.255.0 says...
8:16pm Tue 2 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
oh hang on a minute, that's just in YOUR community.
8:27pm Tue 2 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
jack daniels wrote:
255.Just because you don't like what he has to say doesn't make him thick.
Just another example of your Intolerance towards other people's opinions.
And while your on the subject of thickness, look up the phrase "the proof is in the pudding".
8:31pm Tue 2 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
These are the statistics released by the East Lancashire police, and just not restricted to the asian community.
Let's all just stick to the house price debate, eh!
8:35pm Tue 2 Oct 12
2 for 5p says...
Have you ever heard of auto text.
Moron
8:54pm Tue 2 Oct 12
255.255.255.0 says...
9:03pm Tue 2 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
DirtyHarry wrote:
255.Do I really have to spell it out ?
9:06pm Tue 2 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
9:08pm Tue 2 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
DirtyHarry wrote:
255.And you believe that do you?
9:12pm Tue 2 Oct 12
timeforcommonsense says...
9:26pm Tue 2 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
sen c ble wrote:
DirtyHarry wrote:
255.And you believe that do you?I believe cases I read in the news. There's that one about a 16 year old girl raped by three asian lads. Then there's the article Darwen guy sentenced to 10 years for 13 counts of abusuing under age girls, and that female accused of indecent assault on another woman, and last week that Burnley paedo with indecent images of children, and the colne careworker accused of raping the 16 year old and making her pregnant etc etc
To me this would seem they all at it.
What would you think?
10:42pm Tue 2 Oct 12
255.255.255.0 says...
11:05pm Tue 2 Oct 12
Joseph O'M says...
11:32pm Tue 2 Oct 12
Come the Revolution says...
12:00am Wed 3 Oct 12
jack daniels says...
All I did was suggest that I do the same. Unfortunately, like always, you can't take what you dish out and get all upset when you are informed about your petty racist, bigoted comments. If you had stuck to the contents of the article rather than criticising a community, we wouldn't be having this row. I also never stated I was, or white people where in the minority.
You really are thick.
12:11am Wed 3 Oct 12
jack daniels says...
You are loosing credibility by the second numbers boy and trying desperately to save face by getting others involved in your baby talk.
8:16am Wed 3 Oct 12
goz says...
for some to find they dont get the house and dont get their money back, It's time for government regulation to stop estate agents inflating the market.
8:26am Wed 3 Oct 12
ladysal says...
Having got on the housing ladder through luck and opportunity about eight years ago, I am now in a position where the house needs work, but we can just about manage the bills: extras for the house just aren't an option. Another poster commented on the woeful use of the pathfinder money: maybe that would have been better spent on, as he says, doing up existing properties rather than knocking some of them down and leaving nothing there. My house has stood since 1882 and will probably still be standing in another 130 years.
The reason why the Asian community don't have this problem is because in the majority of cases they finance home buying differently: family members will club together to raise the finance for example.
Once the mortgage market imporves and the economic situation gets better then we will see if your comments are correct. At the moment, there are too many other issues which affect house buying amongst the young.
Subsidised buying opportunites is however a good idea: probably one reason why the powers that be won't adopt it.
8:49am Wed 3 Oct 12
jack daniels says...
9:27am Wed 3 Oct 12
Joseph O'M says...
9:48am Wed 3 Oct 12
superfly agaric says...
My next move will be out of Blackburn as I no longer have any feelings towards the town I once loved. The superb pubs and nightlife are gone, my beloved Corporation Park is a no go area with Witton becoming the same, driving is dangerous and my insurance keeps rocketing as a reminder of the ongoing cost of living in this town.
I keep looking for the positives that are brought with the muslim community but I struggle to find any in many decades of living amongst them.
11:03am Wed 3 Oct 12
timeforcommonsense says...
11:16am Wed 3 Oct 12
pepperpot2296 says...
11:29am Wed 3 Oct 12
pepperpot2296 says...
12:02pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Fire Fly says...
I will happily admit to moving out of an area that I was brought up in & loved because of the Asian families that moved in. Call me racist if you will but I'm not.
Lammack was lovely part of Blackburn, people looked after their properties & respected their neighbours etc, it all made living there really pleasant. Then the Asain families began arriving & my concerns weren't due to the colour of their skin or the religion they followed or the clothing etc. My concerns were based on would they help keep the area as lovely as it always was. Sadly, the majority who moved in, didn't.
Lammack road has many grassed verges, these have become additional parking spaces, the pavements are littered with cars, the double yellow lines are ignored, gardens were 'removed' to make way for even more cars. Visitors have no regard for driveways & cause regular & frustrating problems. There came litter & there came the aroma's of cooking but in general it was the disrepect for a beautiful part of the town.
I think its fair to say that White people are house proud, the outside is as important as the inside. I think for Asian families, space is paramount because of the size of their families so the outside & the area being 'pretty' isn't so much an issue, practicality is. So there is a cultural issue here not a racist one.
Call me terribly British in my thinking but I want greenery & gardens & lovely grass verges & pavements I can walk on without having to weave in & out of the parked cars. I don't want to know what the vast majority are having for tea. I moved so I can live amongst people who like the same kind of surroundings not because of skin colour, perhaps there's a little bit of idealism in their too lol!
1:35pm Wed 3 Oct 12
255.255.255.0 says...
2:11pm Wed 3 Oct 12
cj00 says...
2:56pm Wed 3 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
4:10pm Wed 3 Oct 12
ladysal says...
255: lay off with the Panorama programme - it shows a small minority who can be found in any town in the country. To tar the entire town / white population with that brush is offensive and incorrect. Its just like saying all Asian men are grooming / sexually abusing white female teenagers. Both statements / view points are untrue.
Dirty Harry: stop winding him up!!
4:38pm Wed 3 Oct 12
DirtyHarry says...
DirtyHarry wrote:
255.Sorry mum :(
5:36pm Wed 3 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
6:04pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Another Day says...
7:17pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Rimbus says...
7:33pm Wed 3 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
7:43pm Wed 3 Oct 12
jack daniels says...
Sorry Mrs S. Won't happen again..
7:44pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Rimbus says...
Thought we were discussing house prices in Blackburn. What is the significance of the Luftwaffe?
7:48pm Wed 3 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
7:56pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Rimbus says...
Have you not been to the anger management class this week?
10:34pm Wed 3 Oct 12
angryman9 says...
A correction of at least 30% is required.
The only reason prices have remained high is the government frantically pumping money into the economy to maintain the market.
The so called 'market' is totally artificial.
3:55am Thu 4 Oct 12
mo911 says...
When our grandfathers discovered this town around 60 years ago it was dull and boring, they say the sky was always covered in black smoke.
The locals were so backwards they hadnt even heard of spices or chillies, crucial for a good meal. The discovery was made 60 years ago, and during that time major improvements have taken place, they had to take control to enable this to happen, they started to work long shifts, grafting day in day out, the factories started to pick up.
Then over the years the indigenous people would start to complain that these people who have discovered us, dont integrate. So they started to buy houses in these araes to enable integration to take place, but this didnt work well, the indigenous started to move out, this left the newcomers confused, on the one hand the integration drum beat was sounding loud and clear, and on the other, they would move out of the area when attempts on integration were made. I mean surely the first and best steps towards integration is to move into the area.
It is quite an amusing experience, integration, no integration, integration, no integration, come on guys make your minds up. Do you want to integrate or not, the grounds on which the asians are constantly being bombarded at for allsorts of issues, is integration, and yet when they try to integrate, people move out, its confusing dont you think.
And when you do move out, it would make sense if you moved to Mill Hill or shads, afterall we still want to remain in our beloved Blackburn dont we? or do we?
It clearly seems people have just got bored of blackburn as a whole, and just to make themselves feel better, they slap the blame on the asians.
What a laughing stock. They showed you how to work, how to make proper meals, how to organise, how to run council affairs, but they forgot to teach you manners or logic.
1:28pm Thu 4 Oct 12
Rimbus says...
In terms of 60 years ago the sky being black in Blackburn 60 with smoke, I think you will find that it was pretty much like that in all UK towns and cities 60 years ago as the majority of homes, factories and businesses were still reliant on solid fuel (coal) for heating. This type of fuel creates visible airborne particles known as smoke and was commonplace in all industrialised settlements 60 years ago.
To suggest that the locals were backwards because 60 years ago they had not heard of spices or chillies is cretinous in the extreme. 60 years ago the whole of Western Europe was just starting to recover from the greatest conflict our planet has ever experienced and quite frankly I would suggest that merely feeding one's own family was a challenge, chillies and spices would have been the last thing on peoples minds. BTW world war 2 was fought and won by the allies so that morons like you could rely on justice, freedom of speech and expression and be free from persecution and dictatorship. When I think of the millions of good men who gave their lives to achieve that, and then think of you and your intolerant attitude, my stomach turns.
Whilst acknowledging that there have been great improvements in living standards in the last 60 years, these have been universal and not the result of the actions of one community or another. I would go further and say that these have happened in spite of people with attitudes similar to yours, not because of them.
There is no need for me to add any further throw away insults as you felt compelled to do, your untrue, deranged, deluded and child-like rantings above are sufficient evidence for all to see of your extremely limited intelligence.
Amen.
6:23pm Thu 4 Oct 12
sen c ble says...
Sen
6:25pm Thu 4 Oct 12
Rimbus says...
Are you stalking me?
7:36pm Thu 4 Oct 12
Rimbus says...
To summarise, I raised a couple of questions regarding your military service in world war 2, your service in the Dogra Regiment being used by you within a post earlier in the thread to emphasise the argument you were making. I subsequently asked you a few questions regarding your service and in the initial response you asserted that you were happy to answer any questions on the subject. Your answers to the questions I initially raised did not in my opinion provide a clear timeline nor did they correspond to my understanding of the geographical deployment of allied and axis troops from within a number of countries during world war 2. Upon requesting further clarification you made certain references to Japanese soldiers and I asked you whether you thought that was an appropriate way to refer to Japanese people, pointing out that a similar abbreviation when used to describe people from Pakistan could be construed as racist. From memory you went on to say that people call you a **** all the time and that you didn't mind it. I questioned why you would not mind being called a **** and you said that a mechanic with the initials M.S. had once told you that people round here use the word **** to refer to asians. (I can clarify that I do not, I find the term offensive).
During all my exchanges with you I may have asked you some searching questions that made you feel uncomfortable in an attempt to fully understand certain aspects of your military service. I might also have taken exception politely to arguments that you have put forward that I did not agree with but at no time have I said anything of an offensive nature, I don't need to stoop to those depths. I do however recall a recent exchange of viewpoints when you told me to go back to my dump where the Luftwaffe were circling. When requesting clarification as to significance of the Luftwaffe in a thread about house prices in Blackburn, the response was that you wished the Luftwaffe had smashed me to bits.
There, hope that clarifies things before you ask the LT to take this down.
4:28am Sun 7 Oct 12
mo911 says...
The whole point of freedom of speech is so everyone can take place in it, not just a select few. The places where it doesnt exist, its the same throughout the country, and no one speaks bad about others, but here in the UK it does, so everyone gets a piece of the cake. Afterall that is the point isnt it.
On many an occasion have i heard people making ambiguous remarks towards the asian community, and when questioned on it, they hide under the umbrella of freedom of speech. Its a bit like giving a 2 year old a blank piece of paper and a crayon, he cant read or write, he cant hold the crayon properly, all he can see is hes got the means of doing something, he doesnt know what hes doing so he scribbles whatever he can, why? just because he has the tools. Therefore, we know you have freedom of speech, we know you can rant at will wherever and whenever the need arises, but be aware, that although mummy and daddy will be happy with you, other kids will have a good laugh, and they will tell you off about your scribbles, they may even try and teach you a thing or two, but you obviously wont learn until your grown up.