Money News

House prices up in February

Are house prices up or down? Low numbers of sales make it hard to be sure.

House prices rose 1.9% in February, the 10th month in a row of property value increases, according to new figures.

Annually houses prices rose 9.7% to an average of £222,000, according to the Acadametrics house price index, which brings together data from the seven major house price surveys.

While Rightmove and Hometrack both recorded price rises in February, but Nationwide and Halifax reported price falls.

Dr Peter Williams, chairman of Acadametrics, said: “Given that the two lender mortgage approval based indices for February showed falls of -1.0% and -1.5%, we have a clear tension as to what is really happening in the market.”

He added the source of the difference was down to Acadametrics only covering England & Wales but including cash purchases and homes worth over £1 million, while other indices focus on mortgage approvals.

In January 2010, there were 36,000 property sales, a fall of 52% on December 2009 and the second lowest January level in 16 years.

Dr Williams, added: “The start of 2010 was difficult for a number of reasons, and the question is whether this is a blip or the start of a new trend.”

He explained the slump in activity in January was due to a traditional New Year slowdown, the lowering of the stamp duty threshold and the snow.