A Halifax survey of the UK property market has suggested that house prices had a pre-Christmas rebound after falling steadily for the three months prior to December
The Halifax survey, which was based on the loans it offered to homebuyers, indicated that average house prices rose by 1.3% during December. Halifax’s research showed that this was a significant rise; particularly as their figures also demonstrated that house prices had slumped by 1.3% in November, 0.7% in October and 0.6% in September.
However, despite publishing these encouraging results, Halifax was quick to warn consumers that December’s house price rebound didn’t necessarily mean that our worries over the housing market are over. Indeed, the building society reinforced its earlier prediction that house prices will, on average, remain rather flat for most of 2008.
Halifax also predicted that the housing market would see monthly rises and falls in prices, as this tends to be a typical sign that the housing market is becoming more subdued. This was demonstrated during the housing market’s last significant slowdown, which occurred between July 2004 and the following summer. During this time, the building society’s figures displayed six monthly prices increases, along with six price falls.
However, after these figures were released, some economists raised concerns over their accuracy, particularly as Nationwide had just published their own research from December, which showed a fall in house prices of 0.5%.
A noticeable decline in new homeowner mortgage approvals added weight to Nationwide's statistics. In addition to this, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that the value of new home loans was £12.2 billion in November, which was its lowest value in seven months. As the value of new home loans agreed is seen as a good indicator of housing market trends, this also suggests a bleak housing market outlook.
Source:
The Times
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