Brickonomics

Future traders think the tide has turned for house prices

The futures market is now pricing in strong growth in the housing market, with the Halifax index priced to rise by 6% over the coming 12 months and by 12% over 5 years. This is a marked rise in the...

Posted by Brian on October 8, 2009 9:11 AM

Halifax sees house prices up 3% from the bottom

The latest figures from Halifax put the price of an average house (not seasonally adjusted) up by 3% on the low they reached in March this year and broadly on a par with the level at the end of last...

Posted by Brian on September 10, 2009 10:13 AM

RICS: Housing market remains fragile, despite recent improvement

The message from the latest update on the housing market from the surveyors' body RICS is that while the market may have found a clearing it is not out of the woods yet. There has been a torrent of better...

Posted by Brian on August 6, 2009 9:06 AM

Recent housing data poses the question: Higher, Lower or Stick for prices?

The latest Halifax house price figures showing a 0.5% drop, stacked on top of recent data from Nationwide, Hometrack and a range of others, suggest that prices may be holding steady. But what should we read into that? Which way...

Posted by Brian on July 8, 2009 10:38 AM

And the good news is...

The uber-bearish traders in house price futures appear to have softened their view on the depth of the slump in house prices quite markedly over the past month or so. At the turn of the year you could have bought...

Posted by Brian on June 11, 2009 2:17 PM

Traders see a brighter future for house prices - but still expect a further 17% drop

Follow the money they say. Well the money punted in the futures market suggests that average house prices still have at least 17% to fall. That puts the peak-to-trough drop at more than a third. But the good news for...

Posted by Brian on May 14, 2009 9:01 AM

We are back to April 2004 on house prices, says Halifax

The Halifax house price index showed a further 1.7% fall in April dragging the cost of an average home down to £154,716 on the seasonally adjusted measure. The last time prices were that low was in April 2004 and Halifax...

Posted by Brian on May 6, 2009 9:11 AM

Halifax figures dampen hopes of spring bounce in house prices

The Nationwide figures published yesterday provided some cheer for those selling homes with the announcement of a 0.9% rise in its house price index for March. That hope has been rather squashed with the Halifax today releasing figures suggesting the...

Posted by Brian on April 3, 2009 2:27 PM

House price collapse continues says Halifax

The Halifax index of house prices returned to a downward path in February after surprising many when it showed house prices rising in January. The February figure suggests that on a seasonally adjusted basis 2.3% was wiped off the value...

Posted by Brian on March 5, 2009 9:41 AM

£1 trillion wiped off the value of UK homes

Let's not get too worked up about the £40 billion loss by RBS - those foolish bankers that went into a bidding war to buy ABN Amro at peak. If the Nationwide figures are any reflection of the true value...

Posted by Brian on February 26, 2009 9:25 AM

RICS report stamps on signs of green shoots in the housing market

For all the excitement created by the Halifax upward blip in house prices in January it now looks increasingly like a freak result, at least that is what the latest housing market survey from the surveyors' body RICS would suggest....

Posted by Brian on February 10, 2009 9:45 AM

Don't look for a paradigm shift in one month's Halifax figures

Those in the housing industry will be mightily relieved by the Halifax figures released today. Seasonally adjusted the rise in the price of an average house was put at 1.9%. Unadjusted the rise was a less spectacular 0.9% with about...

Posted by Brian on February 5, 2009 11:44 AM

House price falls in 2008 more than double those of the 1990s

2008 will go into the record books as the year house prices fell at their fastest rate, with prices dropping over the year at more that double the pace of the previous record fall in 1992. The Nationwide data out...

Posted by Brian on January 6, 2009 10:43 AM

Half price houses by 2011, says the futures market

The futures market has marked house prices down further following the release of the latest Halifax figures and now predicts a fall of 46% in cash terms from peak to a trough in 2011. According to the Tradition Future HPI...

Posted by Brian on December 5, 2008 8:42 PM

Why record low interest rates will fail to ease house building woes

The Bank of England's decision to cut interest rates to just 2% today, the lowest in its 300 plus years, will come as a relief to some. But in reality the Bank is near powerless to influence the direction of...

Posted by Brian on December 4, 2008 1:47 PM

Shock drop in Halifax house prices index spells more gloom

The Halifax has just recorded its second biggest house price fall in its 25 year history. The average price of a British home fell 2.6% in November according to the mortgage lender's figures. It means house prices have fallen on...

Posted by Brian on December 4, 2008 9:53 AM

Fancy a 40% discount on a house? Then just wait, says the futures market

The futures market has downgraded it expectations for house prices which now points to a fall in cash terms of more than 40% from the peak in August last year to the bottom of the market in 2011. According to...

Posted by Brian on November 7, 2008 4:48 PM

House prices 16% down and falling faster

House prices fell 2.2% in October to the level they first reached more than three years ago, according to the latest Halifax figures. But how far can they fall?...

Posted by Brian on November 6, 2008 9:33 AM

Rightmove - wrong meaning

I'm not one for publicly criticising other journalists and their take on things. I feel vulnerable enough myself. But sometimes it is worth clearing up a bit of confusion. I read the Rightmove figures and thought no surprise there then,...

Posted by Brian on October 20, 2008 1:25 PM

Future market expects a near 40% fall in house prices

The futures market has unsurprisingly taken an even darker view of house prices over the past month as the Tradition Future HPI latest figures show. The market now puts the peak to trough fall in the average house price at...

Posted by Brian on October 13, 2008 11:09 AM