Fastest Price Fall Since 1992

[Offshore Joe]

Hi All,

Just noticed this from reuters, apologies if already posted somewhere else:-

Quote:

Reuters

House prices mark fastest fall since 1992

LONDON (Reuters) - House prices fell at their fastest pace in 12-1/2 years in the three months to May as the number of new sellers continued to rise and potential buyers shied away, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its seasonally adjusted house prices balance for May fell to -49 from a downwardly-revised -41 in the three months to April.

May's reading was the lowest since November 1992, when millions were still trapped in negative equity after Britain's 1980s house price boom ended in a crash.

"The housing market continued to soften into May," said RICS. "A tepid upturn in buyer activity at the beginning of the year seems to have fizzled out."

The ratio of completed sales to unsold property, which some economists consider a better measure of the housing market's strength than prices, was at 29 percent for the third month running -- off a low of 28 percent in February.

Although that pointed to some stabilisation in the housing market, RICS said that ratio remained below the long-run average of 37 percent, suggesting that prices will remain under some pressure over coming months.

New buyer enquiries slipped back in May, RICS said.

"Surveyors have commented that uncertainty over the economic climate has begun to dampen the mood of potential buyers despite the fact that the jobs market remains firm," the survey said.

A raft of UK economic data has come in weaker than expected in recent weeks and policymakers have highlighted a slowdown in household spending as a key economic risk.

That has raised expectations that interest rates may have peaked at 4.75 percent, something RICS says could prompt a turnaround in housing sales activity.

RICS said the number of homes on surveyors' books slipped back in May to 72 homes per surveyor from 73 in April. Meanwhile the number of new sellers continued to rise but at a slightly slower pace than the prior month

Unquote

[gone west]

suggesting that prices will remain under some pressure over coming months.

thats more like it....

[Offshore Joe]

I particularly liked this part:

"A tepid upturn in buyer activity at the beginning of the year seems to have fizzled out."

That'll be the Spring Bounce then.....

[gone west]

I particularly liked this part:

"A tepid upturn in buyer activity at the beginning of the year seems to have fizzled out."

That'll be the Spring Bounce then.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

sshhh! don't mention the war!

[Offshore Joe]

We should be grateful to the RICS for providing such an objective view of the state of the housing market over the last 3 months, and their view of the future:

"New buyer enquiries slipped back in May, RICS said"

"the economic climate has begun to dampen the mood of potential buyers"

Has anyone got a link to the full RICS report?

[London-loser]

RICS May PDF

[OnlyMe]

RICS,

"the economic climate has begun to dampen the mood of potential buyers"

Not the prices then? Some of your members have priced themselves out of a job, welcome to the real world. You can join the back of the queue with the others who have lost their jobs because their companies can no longer afford to subsidise inflated earnings/living wages.

[Father Fred]

"Some of your members have priced themselves out of a job"

please elaborate?!??!??!

[OnlyMe]

"Some of your members have priced themselves out of a job"

please elaborate?!??!??!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Transaction volumes are down and will continue to be down for a long time - having ramped the prices to these levels there is no way that they will recover quickly, they have priced out the purchasers of the end product on which their services rely - surveys and professional fees associated with house sales and new build.

[Numani]

How come this news does not seem to have made it onto the BBC website?

I have been searching for ages.