Brickonomics

The stagnant housing market: More a problem of first-time movers than first-time buyers

First-time buyers are increasingly becoming trapped in their first-time homes and unable to move on to homes that better suit their needs. That at least is the implication of some figures that caught my eye recently when I was looking...

Posted by Brian on November 10, 2009 8:41 PM

Has the housing mini-boom run out of puff?

All the gauges appear to be reading "set fair" in the housing market, so why the long faces among those in the know? The latest RICS housing market survey on the face of it provides every reason to suspect that...

Posted by Brian on November 10, 2009 12:34 PM

Why the price of an average house is not going up

Average house prices indexes may be on the rise, but the price of an average house is not. That, unless I very much mistake it, is the message from the latest Hometrack survey, which in August measured the first rise...

Posted by Brian on August 31, 2009 9:22 AM

House prices are flat lining, says Hometrack

For the third month in a row Hometrack has registered steady house prices, with a perkier southern market compensating for weaker activity in the north. But this has not led Richard Donnell, Director of Research at the housing market data...

Posted by Brian on July 27, 2009 8:21 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

Relief on the home front, but are we really on a road to recovery?

The relief among those connected with the house building and selling industries must be enormous at the moment. Following on from a set of more encouraging sales data and a fall in pessimism among estate agents, we had figures from...

Posted by Brian on June 1, 2009 11:07 AM

Little to stop the slide in house prices, says Hometrack

Two weeks ago there was growing optimism within the housing market. One budget later and there is every sign that we may re-enter a period of deepening pessimism with commentary to suit. I'd be surprised if the latest British Bankers'...

Posted by Brian on April 27, 2009 12:55 PM

Hometrack sees London and South East as hardest hit by price falls

Further evidence if more were needed of the fragility of the housing market was provided today by the housing data business Hometrack. The national picture shows prices down 1.1% in November and 8.1% down over the past 12 months and...

Posted by Brian on December 1, 2008 1:11 PM

Houses set for a revival as flats wane in the wake of credit crunch

If one thing epitomised the boom years in the housing market it was the building of high-density blocks of apartments that were sucked up off plan by eager investors. The credit crunch has changed all that. Outside of London dense...

Posted by Brian on October 7, 2008 7:36 PM

Are house prices sliding towards a cliff?

A snap survey by RICS has backed up the figures produced by Hometrack that homebuyers are demanding increasingly savage discounts from sellers. Hometrack puts that average discount at 10%, whereas RICS suggests 9%. But either way there will be a...

Posted by Brian on September 27, 2008 7:01 PM

House prices down 8%, but where is the bottom of the market?

The Nationwide's latest stats for June on house prices confirmed what everyone knew: house prices are still falling. The figures put the average house price down 0.9% on the month, 6.3% on the year and 8% down from the peak...

Posted by Brian on July 1, 2008 9:16 AM

"There is no housing market"

It is always a worthwhile experience chatting to Hometrack's Richard Donnell, there are always ideas and sparks of ideas. Having tracked him down this morning we talked, unsurprisingly, about the weirdness of the housing market. He made one particular comment...

Posted by Brian on June 24, 2008 10:09 AM

Halifax figures confirm house prices are plunging

The average house prices has been falling by £4,000 monthly over the past three months as the pace of decline in the market has accelerated, according to HBOS figures. In May house prices were down 2.4%. So, if you had...

Posted by Brian on June 5, 2008 9:56 AM

Buyers "strike" continues as housing market suffers

The latest data confirms that potential homebuyers are still treating the current housing market with extreme caution resulting in fewer mortgages, fewer sales and lower prices. Hometrack data for May shows prices down nationally by 0.5% on the month after...

Posted by Brian on May 27, 2008 10:43 AM

Housing policy facing the crunch

For those not convinced that the credit crunch has spilled over into the “real economy”, a quiet chat with an estate agent or house builder may be worth the effort. The news that two more bidders have joined Barratt in...

Posted by Brian on March 19, 2008 3:31 PM