Brickonomics

Are expectations of inflation too low?

Inflation is now on the way up. That was to be expected. As Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, keeps reminding us, we should expect inflation to be very volatile for some while. But, is it me or...

Posted by Brian on November 18, 2009 8:59 AM

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

Is this deflation I see before me? Why prices are rising faster than the inflation rate

I am not sure about you, but I sometimes have to go to the back numbers to make sense of the statistics that get thrown at me. I have been for some months a bit curious as to why the...

Posted by Brian on September 15, 2009 11:44 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

Recession deeper than we thought says Bank of England

The recession is proving to be deeper than the Bank of England expected when it previous produced an inflation report in May. That in part explains the extension of the quantitative easing programme that rather surprised many commentators. I have...

Posted by Brian on August 12, 2009 11:44 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

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

Rightmove figures provide food for thought on house prices

The latest figures divined from the property website Rightmove show that asking prices fell 0.4% in the month. And at first sight this seem a little at odds with most of the data coming from the housing market of late....

Posted by Brian on June 22, 2009 9:40 AM

Inflation fell more than expected in April

The rate of inflation measured on the consumer prices index (CPI) fell sharply in April from 2.9% to 2.4%. This should be seen as good news for those operating in the housing market as a persistence of over target inflation...

Posted by Brian on May 19, 2009 9:45 AM

A housing market recovery next year, says CEBR

There is a growing chorus of voices saying that the worst is over in the housing market and that the upturn is not that far away. And to add a bit more volume to the choir is the latest Consumer...

Posted by Brian on May 5, 2009 9:54 AM

Inflation down but far from out, despite cheaper cucumbers

For the first time in a year the annual rate of inflation measured on the CPI index dropped below 3%, dropping from 3.2% to 2.9%. The main contributor to the fall in inflation was lower energy costs, which contributed to...

Posted by Brian on April 21, 2009 11:11 AM

Home sellers push up asking prices

The latest figures from the property website Rightmove suggest that sellers are feeling a bit more confident and are pushing up their asking prices. Rightmove puts the 1.8% rise in asking prices in April on top of the 0.9% rise...

Posted by Brian on April 20, 2009 11:56 AM

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

Inflation, deflation, Japan and paradoxes

So consumer price inflation isn't falling as fast as many commentators had expected. Is that a surprise? Well not really. Ok there are lags in the systems. But with oil price falls, the cut in VAT and deep discounting the...

Posted by Brian on February 17, 2009 11:58 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

Official figures suggest construction is faring better than most - really?

The appalling GDP figures released today suggest construction has got off relatively lightly so far - odd don't you think? The economy took its biggest nosedive since mid 1980 in the final quarter of last year, a drop of 1.5%....

Posted by Brian on January 23, 2009 10:29 AM

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

Construction's only salvation is for the Government to spend big

A cut in interest rates by the Bank of England at noon this Thursday is being pencilled in by most analysts and economists, the only real question appears to be how big the cut will be. This may help the...

Posted by Brian on December 2, 2008 12:14 PM

Down again and more house price falls to follow

Another month, another fall in the Halifax house price index. And we can expect that to continue for some while yet, despite the cash transfusion pumped into the financial system and the monetary defibrillation provided by a concert of central...

Posted by Brian on October 9, 2008 9:53 AM