The latest figures form Halifax report a fourth consecutive monthly increase in property prices of 1.2% in October, this compares with a 0.4%increase for October reported by Nationwide.
But it is the comments behind these headlines that are interesting….
Halifax’s housing economist, Mark Ellis, also raised caution that much of the recent increases are because there are too few homes on the market to meet demand. Mr Ellis also commented that there are some indications that more people were deciding to put their homes on the market which would curb the rate at which property prices are increasing.
The Chief Economist of HIS Global, Howard Archer, commented that you can’t place too much store on one survey and that you need to look at the whole picture. In particular Mr Archer commented that “I just don’t think the economy is strong enough to sustain these increases”.
Overall the message here seems to be that caution should be applied to the reported increases in property prices and that we are still in a fragile economy.
