Brickonomics

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

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

House prices on the increase, but so too are the questions marks over the housing market

The big news is that for the first time in two years more surveyors in Britain said prices rose than said they fell, according to the latest RICS housing market survey. The big question is whether this is the start...

Posted by Brian on September 14, 2009 11:54 PM

Meanwhile, ITEM Club says recent house price rise is a false dawn

Today the Item Club released a special report on house prices that suggests a further fall in the first half of next year. It sees the recent rise as a false dawn and says it will be another five years...

Posted by Brian on September 14, 2009 9:44 AM

"House price falls are over" say futures traders

House price falls are over. That is the declaration made over the past two months by the futures market after two years of grim expectations. As recently as last December you could forward buy a notional average house three years...

Posted by Brian on September 14, 2009 8:53 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

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

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

Summer sale has started in the housing market, says Rightmove

Today's Rightmove figures showing a drop of 2.2% in the price sellers are asking for their homes provides a reminder of the need to remain cautious about the direction of the housing market. The numbers are obviously being spun to...

Posted by Brian on August 17, 2009 8:33 AM

Survey shows widening North-South house price divide

The latest RICS survey out today adds yet more evidence to suggest a widening north-south gap in the housing market. Prices are now rising robustly in the equity-rich, high housing-demand south, while for most of Britain house prices remain on...

Posted by Brian on August 11, 2009 9:22 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

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

Rightmove data suggests a testing time for house prices

One figure in the commentary alongside the latest set of Rightmove statistics caught my eye - apparently there has been a 20% increase in sellers coming to the market compared with the previous year. Rightmove puts this down to resurgence...

Posted by Brian on July 20, 2009 8:51 AM

House prices likely to rise say surveyors

The shortage of homes on the market has provided surveyors with increased confidence that house prices may rise, according to the latest RICS survey. For the first time since May 2007 more surveyors polled by the RICS expect house prices...

Posted by Brian on July 14, 2009 10:24 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

North-South divide develops in housing market - is it a cause for concern?

The latest housing market report from the surveyors' body RICS will provide further cheer for most of those selling homes. The June 2009 report suggests that the pace of collapse in prices continues to ease, the volume of sales has...

Posted by Brian on June 9, 2009 7:39 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