End Of The Housing Boom On Nigh

IT seems that a new report on the housing market is published every day and the latest to reach us, from Hometrack, reveals that the housing boom may be coming to an end.

According to the report, house-prices in two-thirds of postcodes in England and Wales were either static or fell in May. The average price of a home in the UK did rise this month, however, but only be a measly 0.6 per cent, lower than April’s 0.7 per cent rise.

With the Bank Of England’s recent penchant for interest rate rises and a rising supply of homes, this cooling of the housing market won’t have come as a huge surprise and Hometrack’s Richard Donnell expects the slowdown to continue.

“The steady ratcheting up of interest rates was bound to take its toll eventually. We expect the headline rate of growth to slow relatively quickly over the rest of the year towards 4 per cent as affordability pressures put a continued squeeze on purchasing power and more supply comes to the market,” he says.

Despite the overall slowdown, London, unsurprisingly, continues to dominate the rest of the country, with the metropolitan market posting an increase of 1.3 per cent.

Still, now is the time to sell your house and live the life of an affluent hobo.

A sacked secretary who claims to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder is suing a company for £15million because her desk was too far away from a window.

Anorak

Posted: 28th, May 2007 | In: Money Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink