Halifax reports a rise in UK house prices in July
FEARS of a double-dip in the UK housing market dissipated somewhat yesterday after mortgage lender Halifax reported that house prices rose by 0.6 per cent in July.
Last month’s rise entirely offset the June drop in prices and the average price of a UK house now stands at £167,425. This is slightly below where they were at the end of 2009.
But analysts warned against being too optimistic too quickly. IHS Global Insight’s Howard Archer said: “House prices are notoriously volatile on a month-to-month basis, and can also be from survey to survey. So it is best not to attach too much importance to one piece of data.” He added that the July survey did not fundamentally alter his view that house prices will ease back towards the end of 2010 and are likely to soften slightly in 2011.