Brickonomics

Caution rules in house price debate

The latest Nationwide house price survey for August recorded the fourth rise on the trot and puts the average price of a house £12,500 higher than in February. Surely this means the slump is over and the price of houses...

Posted by Brian on August 27, 2009 10:11 AM

Forecasters call the bottom of the house price slump

The increasing stretch of stable house prices is leading forecasters to call the bottom of the slump. The Nationwide late last month tentatively said it may be time to think the unthinkable that house prices may exit 2009 higher than...

Posted by Brian on August 8, 2009 4:45 PM

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

Nationwide ponders the unthinkable: A house price rise for 2009

The latest figures from Nationwide show a rise in prices for the third month on the trot, which puts the price of an average house at 1.3% more than at the start of the year. This sign of buoyancy is...

Posted by Brian on July 30, 2009 10:52 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

Home prices slide but rate of decline has eased, says Nationwide

The latest Nationwide data on house prices is yet another pointer to suggst the slide in house prices is far from over. The April figure saw the average price fall by 0.4% in April after the upward blip of 0.9%...

Posted by Brian on April 30, 2009 9:25 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

Nationwide springs pleasant surprise for house sellers and builders

The latest analysis by the Nationwide of house prices suggests that this spring has brought with it an unexpected 0.9% bounce in the price of houses. This will add some more cheer to those currently enjoying the blue skies, sunshine...

Posted by Brian on April 2, 2009 9:49 AM

Is there any value in valuing housing?

I thought it might be worth responding to the comment from Gerry. I don't get many comments and he raises a good point. My first reaction is to say that I couldn't agree more that people should see homes as...

Posted by Brian on February 26, 2009 4:18 PM

£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

Is the worst of the house price crash yet to come?

New Year, new figures from Nationwide showing a new fall in house prices. No surprise there then. But the next few months may prove critical to the final shape of our current house price crash. Will we see a more...

Posted by Brian on January 29, 2009 2:06 PM

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

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

All house price indexes are flawed, but that makes them more useful

There has been a huge fuss over the Land Registry house price index with a lot of people seemingly getting hot under and over the collar. But why? What's the fuss? Is the Land Registry really behaving "criminally"....

Posted by Brian on December 1, 2008 11:46 AM

Prepare for a bleak winter on house prices

On the face of it the steady easing over the past three months in the monthly rate of decline in house prices measured by Nationwide is encouraging to those who want to see the market stabilise. For the policy makers...

Posted by Brian on November 27, 2008 11:51 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

When even words of comfort are frightening

The most profoundly worrying thing about the latest Nationwide house price index press release was a comment from Fionnuala Earley, the building society's chief economist, which I think, in the context it was placed, was meant to be soothing. Now...

Posted by Brian on October 2, 2008 9:33 AM

Housing market grinding to a standstill, says Hometrack

There is further evidence that the housing market is grinding to a standstill in the latest monthly figures provided by Hometrack. Hometrack figures put the annual drop in average prices at about 6.2%. This is a more modest drop than...

Posted by Brian on September 26, 2008 10:46 AM

Time to price in the cost of losing skills in a housing crash

Until the realisation of the enormity of the task was grasped those at home and those on the way to the front comforted themselves with the line: "It'll be all over by Christmas." That was WW1. How much of this...

Posted by Brian on September 9, 2008 12:44 PM