House Prices Remained Unchanged in July

Hometrack Ltd. report, published on Monday, June 27th, suggests that house price in the United Kingdom remained stable for the third consecutive month. According to the statement, made by the London-based Hometrack Ltd. – a research company - an average house in England and Wales was priced £155,600 in July 2009, which is 7.7% lower than in the same period in the year of 2008. Hometrack’s research director, Mr. Richard Donnell, is determined that the British housing market remains fragile as it needs recovery in both, economic outlook and mortgage availability. In the second quarter of 2009, the British economy saw an 0.8% decline, which is twice as much as it was predicted by economists. It is expected that the data, which is to be revealed by the Bank of England later this week, will show a 50% decrease in approved mortgages from the amount approved in 2007. However, coming back to the Hometrack report, it is to be noted that 8 out of 10 regions, surveyed by the company saw no change from the previous month. The remaining 2 regions – London and East Anglia – showed a 0.1% increase in property values. Hometrack’s report is based on a survey conducted among 6,159 estate agents and property surveyors. Despite the fact that the Bank of England has not yet published its report on mortgage approvals, 19 Bloomberg News economists predict that the figure is highly likely to have increased to 47,000. The official data is to be released by the Central Bank on June, 29th. Report published by a reputable residential property source, Rightmove Plc., suggests that asking prices have increased by 0.6% in July with an average house in England or Wales being priced at £227,864. Last week, in his interview, Mr. Andrew Sentance – a policy maker at the Bank of Engalnd – said that the bank is currently uncertain of whether it needs to add further to what it has already done. Let us remind that the Central Bank has recently spent an average of £125 billion on bond purchases.