Halifax -1.7% MoM, 17.7% YoY, 22.6% down from peak.

thegibdog

TDS wrote: »

'In a further boost to hopes that the economy could be set to turn a corner, figures from Halifax revealed a slowdown in the rate of falling house prices. The House Price Index revealed that the average UK house price declined by 1.7 per cent in April - compared with a 1.9 per cent drop in March'

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6232549.ece

Fantastic.

ad9898_3

TDS wrote: »

'In a further boost to hopes that the economy could be set to turn a corner, figures from Halifax revealed a slowdown in the rate of falling house prices. The House Price Index revealed that the average UK house price declined by 1.7 per cent in April - compared with a 1.9 per cent drop in March'

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6232549.ece

And in other news the asteroid that is heading towards earth turned out not to 20 miles across as first believed, it's been measured by leading authorities and it's only 10 miles across, sighs of relief can be heard all round the globe.:rolleyes:

Honestly, who wrote that article in The Times, more to the point how much glue had they sniffed.

JayScottGreenspan

We can all agree that April 2008 was a pretty crappy time for the housing market, no?

Well according to Halifax heres how the price changes in April 08 and April 09 compare:
_______NSA___SA__
Apr 08 +£333 -£2,920
Apr 09 +£90 -£2,604

dopester

the_ash_and_the_oak wrote: »

kinda surprised actually - think its too early for second stage of the crash but thought the idea of restricting supply by helping current owners cashflow would continue to reduce the large falls of the first stage

kinda taking each months stats with a pinch of salt with the low transactions tho tbh. think we're some way off the next stage imo

Values are set at the margin Woody.

Wookster

ad9898 wrote: »

Honestly, who wrote that article in The Times, more to the point how much glue had they sniffed.

Could it have been Anatole Kaletsky?

That man has no brain. My 5 year old cousin could write more sense than he does.

Off to the beach now, 4th day in a row - see you all later!

thegibdog

mitchaa wrote: »

Interesting, 2009 drops so far then...

Nationwide

Dec 08...£153,048
Apr 09...£151,861

4 Month reduction of 0.78%

Halifax

Dec 08 £160,861
Apr 09 £154,716

4 Month reduction of 3.82%

mitchaa wrote: »

JayScottGreenspan...Remind me where i can borrow 308.1/300 and 305.3/302.9 as to me they are just meaningless numbers. The numbers with the £ signs in front of them are all that matters to anyone borrowing I agree the index may have dropped 2.6% but the fact of the matter is Nationwide are talling me that i need to borrow £151,861 to buy the average house now, just like they told me i needed to borrow £153,048 in December. (That is a 0.78% difference)

If they have never seasonally adjusted them in the past, then it makes not the blindest bit of difference if they don't do so now.

I think the point Jay was trying to make was that the figures in your first post were unadjusted for Nationwide but adjusted for Halifax. For the record the unadjusted Halifax figures are as follows:

Halifax

Dec 08 £158,437
Apr 09 £157,156

4 Month reduction of 0.81%

chucky

ad9898 wrote: »

Well I just got back in, can i just congratulate Dan and mitchaa for turning up and putting up a fight, one sided arguments can be boring, although where are the others, julieq, chucky, StevieJ has been a bit quiet as well, come on guys and gals, join in the fun.:D

i'm here Ad - i'm not surprised with fall but surprised by the amount.

i've never really taken notice of nationwide or halifax - it's only mortgage approvals for about 27% of the mortgage market. it just shows the discrepencies between the two that they're focused on different areas of the UK.

Nationwide = South of England
Halifax = North of England

dopester

mitchaa wrote: »

I fail to see the link personally?

So its a very very small point in my eyes, the majority will keep their jobs, and their homes and rising unemployment will have a negligible impact.

Values are set at the margin mitchaa.

There have only been 14 sales on the street I'm living on since 2001, from the 86 homes which are there.

In turn, as new buyers agreed to buy at ever higher prices from sellers (up till December 2007) this more than doubled the value of this house - even though the owner did nothing except live here.

The owner did nothing to cause the value to rise, other than minor improvements like new carpets.

Only what happens at the margins matters, and when transactions go through at ever lower values, it brings down the values for all.

ad9898_3

What the graph below shows, is that the rate of falls last time was much smaller, with more upticks, to put it in context, only twice in 6 years did falls match the -1.7% we have had today, it's just a thought that when we see slower falls at some point, as we ineviteably will, it doesn't mean the recovery is around the corner, it means the crash has turned into a normal one, instead of the once in lifetime one we are seeing now.

lemonjelly

mitchaa wrote: »

I fail to see the link personally?

1m living in council houses or 1m individual homeowners? If they are in HA/Council homes then rising unemplyment wont make any difference to the private housing market as their benefits will pay their rent.

The same could be said about private homes aswell, we have ISMI to pay mortgage interest and even if 1 person out of a couple is made unemployed they could possibly still manage to afford their mortgage.

So its a very very small point in my eyes, the majority will keep their jobs, and their homes and rising unemployment will have a negligible impact.

Quite a strange statement IMO.
People residing in council/HA homes are not there for life. Many of them are in affordable housing whilst saving to purchase. Their insecurities will now lead to a reduction in the numbers of FTB. Believe it or not, many in this situation aspire to be homeowners.

So this will impact on house prices.

In addition, if Local authorities benefits budget has to increase to cover all these people on housing benefit, the local populace will have to meet this via council tax and business rates.

Further, there will be a subsequent massive pressure on the already undersupply of affordable social housing.