Supply of new and used homes to buy on the market is still low despite housebuilding in England growing for two straight years now, Halifax housing economist Martin Ellis says.
This is one of the factors that are likely to keep house prices up. The recent uplift in housing demand stemming from the increase in real earnings and spending power as well as the recent falls in mortgage rates and stamp duty changes are further drivers of property prices.
Although there is further cooling on a monthly basis, prices in the three months to February 2015 have increased compared to the previous quarter and to the same period a year ago, according to the Halifax House Price Index.
“House prices in the three months to February were 2.6% higher than in the preceding three months. This measure of the underlying rate of house price growth increased for the second consecutive month in February despite a small monthly fall in prices. Annual price growth nonetheless eased, from 8.5% in January to 8.3%, and is comfortably below last July’s peak of 10.2%,” Ellis comments.
On a monthly basis, house prices have declined by 0.3 per cent.
The average price paid for a house from December 2014 to February 2015 was £192,372.
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