House prices fall back 0.5% in June
Halifax has reported that UK house prices fell back 0.5% last month, after recording a rise of 2.6% in May.
Despite the June fall, the annual rate of decline eased to 15% (down from 16.3% in May) nudging the average property price up to £157,715.
Taking a three-month measure the average value of a home declined 1.9% during the second quarter of the year, the smallest loss since the beginning of 2008.
The lender has therefore concluded that the underlying pace of house price decline is easing alongside indications of a “modest improvement” in sales activity.
According to Halifax, improvements in affordability, low interest rates and record low numbers of properties for sale have helped to stabilise activity and reduce the underlying rate of fall.
However, the lender’s housing economist, Martin Ellis, cautions: “Whilst there have been encouraging recent signs of improvement, the outlook for the UK economy remains uncertain with unemployment set to continue rising for sometime.”
He adds: “Overall, we expect to see a continuing mixed pattern of monthly house price rises and falls over the remainder of 2009.”
By way of comparison, Nationwide reported a 0.9% rise in the average house price in June, to £156,442.
The building society’s figures show prices increasing during three of the past four months, easing the annual rate of decline to 9.3% last month, compared to 11.3% in May.
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