House Price Market Update for August 2010
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July and August data shows that trying to report on the property market purely covering property prices is pointless. As with any market analysis, it's often the volume figure that is far more interesting.
For example, property sales' volumes started to fall in September 2007, for the Land Registry property price falls weren't recorded until NINE MONTHS later, in June 2008. Over those nine months, the number of properties sold fell by 49%, from 100,000 properties per month to just over 50,000.
Kate Faulkner, a top UK property market commentator says "The media - and many property surveys - always headline with property prices. If you are interested in what's happening in the property market, check out volume first, then look at the impact it has had on house prices." Kate warns "If the media and property commentators continue to concentrate on price alone they will (and do) mislead your average buyer and seller in the street about what's happening. This in turn makes it confusing and unnecessarily stressful for people to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their life". Kate concludes "It's about time the media woke up to getting people who understand the market to talk and report on it, rather than reading out a press release headline which rarely matches what the data actually reports!"
Read Kate's latest summary on the property market READ MORE.
Want to know what's happening in your area, ignore the headlines, let Kate help you work it out for yourself. READ MORE
The outlook for 2010 will depend on whether buyers have run out of cash and interest rates go up forcing repossession. READ MORE for a summary of Kate's price predictions for the rest of 2010.
Performance and commentary since January 2009:-
Click here to see our latest buying/selling articles
Headline Statistics for August 2010
Headline Statistics | Statistics | +/- | Source | Month |
Average Prices | £166,798 to £232,241 | +6.7% to +4.3% YoY | Land Registry Lowest
Rightmove Highest | July/Aug data |
Transactions* | 48,219* | +30.51% YoY | Land Registry | Feb to May 10 |
Time to Sell | 8.9 Weeks | Slightly up on last month | Hometrack | August |
Number of viewings to sale | 11 | No change from last five months | Hometrack | August |
Offer to Market Price | 93.5% | A further decrease on last month | Hometrack | August |
% change in new buyers registering with agents | -2.2% | A further decrease on previous two months | Hometrack | August |
No of houses sold by agents | 6 | A fall on last month | NAEA | June |
% sold to for sale boards | 25.8% | Slightly down on last month | For Sale Sign Anaylsis | August |
Number of new mortgages | 48,722 | Slightly up on previous month | Bank of England | July |
* Per month
Sold versus For Sale Sign Boards data*
Month 2010 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
Percentage
Sold | 26% | 26.4% | 25.4% | 26.5% | 30.9% | 25.5% | 26% | 25.8% |
Month 2009 | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Percentage
Sold | 16% | 12% | 17% | 19.5% | 21.1% | 28.3% | 29.5% | 30.2% | 36.3% | 27.3% | 31% | 34% | 26.7% |
*Data provided by FSSA, for more information on this data,
Contact usLinks to useful Buying and Selling Reports
Price Indices
There are at least seven property indices and other companies that comment on the property market, please checkout the links below:-
Rightmove Halifax Nationwide RICS
Communities Financial Times Land Registry Other Useful Resources
Hometrack NAEA RICS Savills Knight FrankDownload Savills Residential Property Focus
For more market commentary on a national or local level:-
Contact Kate Faulkner on 07974 750562 or 0845 838 1763. To read more about Kate, please visit
ABOUT US, see
Kate on video and for media appearances, contact:
Sylvia Tidy-Harris
STH Management Tel +44 (0) 1530 263221
Mob +44 (0) 7970 646872
Fax: +44 (0) 1530 264018
