SCOTS are burying their heads in the sand over how much the crash in the housing market has wiped off the value of their homes, a survey has revealed.
Fresh data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that most people believe their house is worth only £1000 less than it was on the eve of the economic downturn in 2006.
But the reality is more than 10 times that amount has dropped off the value of the average home in Scotland.
The ONS survey analysed the wealth of the nation, both in terms of property and the value of possessions, and also looked at householders' perceptions about the value of their assets.
Statisticians found the average Scot believed their home was worth £150,000 last year, compared to £151,000 in 2006.
However, figures from HBOS used to illustrate the difference between expectations and actual values show the average price of a home north of the Border has dropped by £11,000 during the same period, falling to a low of £138,000 last year.
Martin Ellis, head of market research and analysis at HBOS, said the figures hammered home the way the economic downturn had affected the housing market. He said: "Price levels proved unsustainable when the economic and financial market downturns hit demand, and significantly reduced the availability of mortgage finance. These events caused a widespread decline in property values across Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article