I don’t think any of us got too excited over the slight rise in house prices last month, though it was nice to see things headed in that direction for a change. It is just as well that most of us greeted the news with caution because Nationwide figures released last week show a 0.4% decline.
The good news is these same figures show that the pace of the decline in house prices has slowed.
No matter which way you cut it, though, houses are still worth 15% less on average than they were a year ago and for most people this is fairly grim news.
It is a very interesting fact, however, that the largest factor affecting your house price movement is location. The Land Registry released figures in March that make fascinating reading with typical property prices rising by 1.8% in the North East of the country but falling by 2% over the same period in the West Midlands.
In separate news, Nationwide were reasonably positive about some of the measures put in place by Chancellor Alistair Darling in the last budget but they still sounded a note of caution.
They do not believe that anything he announced would have the effect of a quick turnaround in the market. It seems that they, like most of us, continue to urge patience.
