House prices still rising
Nationwide House price index has shown that House prices rose by 0.9% in September, this is the fifth monthly rise in a row. According to the index price growth is down just –2.7% compared to last year, but down -13.5% since the market peaked in October 2007.
Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: “The 3 month on 3 month rate of change, generally a smoother indicator of the near term trend, rose from 3.3% in August to 3.8% in September, the highest level since August 2004.
He added: “At £161,816, the average price of a typical UK property was essentially unchanged from a year earlier, representing the first time since March 2008 that the year-on-year rate of change has not been negative. Over the first nine months of 2009, the seasonally adjusted index of house prices has risen by 4.1%.”
“One reason to remain cautious about the outlook for house prices is that turnover in the market is still well below normal levels. The housing turnover rate – measuring the percentage of the private sector housing stock changing hands on an annualised basis – fell to only 3% at the end of 2008. Although the turnover rate has since recovered to nearly 4%, there is still quite some way to go before turnover reaches the pre-downturn level of between 7% and 8%.
Michael White, chief executive of online mortgage advisers Email Mortgages.com, said: “To talk of an average UK house price is always something of a red herring given the UK is very much a regional housing market – some homeowners, for example, those in the London commuter belt, will have seen their property bounce back strongly since the large falls of last year, while others have only seen a slight house price recovery. One must expect that the recent house price increases, if they are to be maintained at all, will only be in very small increments and this will be the pattern for the foreseeable future.”
White said “the real issue for the UK housing market continues to be the low level of mortgage lending by the banks; a recent Bank of England Credit Conditions Survey for quarter three outlines what anyone working in the mortgage market has known for some time, that lenders have not increased lending to businesses or individuals as previously promised, instead lending has been cut. Given the small number of lenders currently active in the market it is therefore unsurprising that many potential house purchases are not going ahead because of the difficulty accessing mortgage finance; a particularly acute problem for first-time buyers.”
Tags: 1 Stop Financial, Bank Rate, First Time Buyers, house sales, mortgage advice, Pembrokeshire, property prices
