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Chart of the Day: Falling UK House Prices
9th April 2008
No surprises for our choice of chart of the day!
House prices have seen their biggest monthly drop since the 1990s recession, according to Halifax Bank of Scotland - the UK’s biggest mortgage lender. Let us include the usual caveat that you should never read too much into one month of data - but it seems to me that virtually of the housing market indicators including many of the forward-looking confidence surveys from households, estate agents and construction companies are pointing to a hefty downturn in house prices and activity in the market over the coming months whatever the soothing comments of the housing market economists from the leading banks and mortgage lenders. From a personal perspective, I am happy for property prices to decline for a couple of years having been out of the market for some little while. It probably won’t be a rout whatever the Daily Mail and Daily Express might suggest on their front pages. But the property boom is most definitely over for now and a dampening of the ardor for bricks and mortar as almost the sole route to greater wealth is, in my opinion, no bad thing at all.
PowerPoint Charts House_Price_Inflation.ppt
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.