--- title: "A house is priced by the street it stands on, not only by the rooms inside it" url: https://beatyouthere.com/ description: "Original writing about how a local housing market works, what moves house prices, and the mechanics of buying, selling, surveys, mortgages and renting." --- # A house is priced by the street it stands on, not only by the rooms inside it ## What this site covers, and how to read it Housing is discussed almost entirely in national figures, and almost nobody buys a national average. What a household meets is a market of a few streets, a few dozen suitable homes and a handful of sales a season. That market has its own mechanics, and most of the confusion around housing comes from applying the language of one scale to the other. The pages here are organised around three ideas. The first is that a local market is best understood as a large fixed stock of homes with a very small flow of them for sale at any moment. The second is that a transaction is a sequence of checks rather than a single decision, and that the money and the commitment enter at different points in that sequence. The third is that finance sets the ceiling: what buyers can borrow determines what they can bid, so the cost of borrowing runs underneath every other explanation. Stock, availability and completed sales at very different scales: the reason a handful of transactions can reset what a whole street believes it is worth. This is a writing project, not a business. Nothing here is for sale, no property is listed or valued, and no page offers advice on an individual purchase, loan or legal question. 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[Read how a local housing market works](https://beatyouthere.com/how-a-local-housing-market-works/) 2. 02 [What actually moves house prices](https://beatyouthere.com/what-moves-house-prices/)Borrowing costs, the number of homes for sale, travel time and the condition of the building itself, in roughly that order of force. [Read what actually moves house prices](https://beatyouthere.com/what-moves-house-prices/) 3. 03 [Buying a home, step by step](https://beatyouthere.com/buying-a-home-step-by-step/)From the first offer to the day the keys change hands, and where in that sequence a purchase is still reversible. [Read buying a home, step by step](https://beatyouthere.com/buying-a-home-step-by-step/) 4. 04 [Selling a home, step by step](https://beatyouthere.com/selling-a-home-step-by-step/)How an asking price is set, what marketing actually does, and why the first three weeks decide most sales. [Read selling a home, step by step](https://beatyouthere.com/selling-a-home-step-by-step/) 5. 05 [Surveys and searches](https://beatyouthere.com/surveys-and-searches/)A valuation, a survey and a search answer three different questions. Confusing them is the most common expensive mistake. [Read surveys and searches](https://beatyouthere.com/surveys-and-searches/) 6. 06 [Mortgages in plain terms](https://beatyouthere.com/mortgages-in-plain-terms/)Capital, interest, term and loan to value, explained without product names, recommendations or rates. [Read mortgages in plain terms](https://beatyouthere.com/mortgages-in-plain-terms/) 7. 07 [Renting versus owning](https://beatyouthere.com/renting-versus-owning/)The real comparison is not monthly cost. It is who carries the maintenance risk and who can move at short notice. [Read renting versus owning](https://beatyouthere.com/renting-versus-owning/) 8. 08 [Leasehold and freehold](https://beatyouthere.com/leasehold-and-freehold/)What is actually being bought in each case, and why the difference shows up in the cost of living in a flat. [Read leasehold and freehold](https://beatyouthere.com/leasehold-and-freehold/) ## Where to start - [How a local housing market works](https://beatyouthere.com/how-a-local-housing-market-works/) - [What actually moves house prices](https://beatyouthere.com/what-moves-house-prices/) - [Mortgages in plain terms](https://beatyouthere.com/mortgages-in-plain-terms/) - [Buying a home, step by step](https://beatyouthere.com/buying-a-home-step-by-step/) - [Surveys and searches](https://beatyouthere.com/surveys-and-searches/) ## Definitions **Chain**: A run of linked sales in which each buyer needs their own sale to complete before they can complete. **Loan to value**: The size of a loan expressed as a share of the property's assessed value. **Exchange**: The point at which the contract becomes binding on both sides. **Service charge**: A recurring payment for the upkeep of parts of a building shared with other households. **Under offer**: An offer has been accepted, but nothing has yet become binding on either party. **Stock**: The total number of homes in an area, as distinct from the small number for sale at any moment. [The full glossary](https://beatyouthere.com/housing-glossary/) ## New on the site Pages added most recently. This list is the whole notice board; there is nothing to sign up to and nothing is sent out. - [How neighbourhoods get their character](https://beatyouthere.com/neighbourhood-character/) - [Reading a floor plan](https://beatyouthere.com/reading-a-floor-plan/) - [A plain-language housing glossary](https://beatyouthere.com/housing-glossary/) ## Scope of this site This site explains how housing and housing transactions work. It sells nothing, lists nothing, values nothing, and gives no advice on any individual property, loan or legal question.