–House Prices Down 0.6% In June M/M; +6.3% 3M/3M y/y
–Halifax Sees Prices Broadly Unchanged Over 2010 Overall
LONDON (MNI) – UK house prices fell by 0.6% last month from the
previous month, following a similar decline in May (-0.5% m/m),
according to the latest Halifax house price survey.
Prices over the April-June quarter were little changed from the
previous three months, the Halifax said, while prices rose 6.3% in the 3
months to June compared with the same 3 months a year ago.
The survey findings are significantly at odds with those issued by
the Nationwide – the UK’s other main house price indicator, which
has shown a firmer, albeit slowing, trend in prices over recent months.
The Halifax survey shows house prices 0.1% lower than in the first
quarter of 2010 and said that prices are now 7.5% above their April 2009
trough but 17% below their August 2007 peak.
The annual 6.3% climb in prices in June is below the 6.9% rise seen
in May, which had been the highest year-on-year rise seen since October
2007.
Commenting, Martin Ellis, housing economist, said:
“House prices fell by 0.6% in June following a similar decline in
May. Prices in the April to June quarter were largely unchanged
compared with the first three months of the year. This continued the
slowdown in house price growth since the beginning of the year following
the moderate recovery in prices during much of 2009. This pattern is in
line with our view that house prices will be broadly unchanged over 2010
as a whole”.
Howard Archer of Global Insight agrees with the Halifax assessment:
“The third successive drop in prices reported by the Halifax in
June adds to a recent flurry of soft data on the housing market and
stokes our relative pessimism over the housing market. Indeed, we
increasingly suspect that house prices will be only flat over the rest
of this year. We had previously thought a small rise was possible”.
–London newsroom: 44207 862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com
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