Moving House - Again?

I'm currently living in the 6th house since I got married at 21, having lived in 2 houses before going away to college. So, 8 houses in total in my life. That apparently is roughly the average, which is 7 in the UK.

Most of my life I lived with my nuclear family of 3 in four of those houses. For the last 10 years I've lived alone in 2 houses. Although I think women have the biggest say in which houses are purchased at any stage, this current house is the only one that has been truly mine.

The process of moving is time consuming, stressful & costly at the best of times. It is far more difficult if you are doing it alone. You have to have the energy & confidence to do it. As you age the energy, unsurprisingly, diminishes a lot.

Currently the British house market is dead on it's feet & has been for about 3 years. Over the last year property prices have fallen, even in the hitherto "special" bubble of North Oxford. Houses are languishing for sale with very little footfall of prospective buyers. Setting a realistic price is difficult & buyers expect to be able to offer much lower than the agents price. Sellers, especially those who have only owned a house for a couple of years, don't want to accept that their home may not be worth what they paid for it.

There needed to be a re-adjustment in property values, but so long as you are buying & selling at the same time it probably doesn't matter much. There is so much political instability & market volatility that you have to be brave to risk renting for any length of time before buying. Property prices can go up as well as down.

The house I wanted has finally gone, after months on the market, to a cash buyer. There doesn't seem to be anything much available,& certainly not anything that appeals to me. So what to do? I'm never going to be in a position to move if my house hasn't got a proceedable buyer. However I don't want to rent & have to effectively move twice.

There is absolutely nothing you can do to control buying & selling houses. You have to be prepared to accept the situation. I'm really lucky - I can do that. It isn't as if I have to move for employment reasons. There is little confidence around because of the political, economic, ecological world situation. It isn't just Brexit - Our world is in turmoil.