House prices down 1% in June

House prices fell by an average of one per cent during June, according to the latest statistics from Hometrack.

This is the ninth consecutive monthly fall, according to the housing intelligence business, following drops of 0.5 and 0.6 per cent in May and April respectively.

As a result of the sustained decline, prices are down 3.4 per cent in the year to June.

“In the short term it seems inevitable that prices will continue to post modest falls until such time as confidence improves,” commented Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research.

“The majority of homeowners simply do not need to move and will not do so until either their circumstances change or the outlook for the economy and mortgage rates becomes clearer.”

Hometrack also finds there was a sharp drop in the number of buyers registering with agents during June, with numbers down 5.7 per cent.

The latest fall brings the number of buyers down 52 per cent since the beginning of the credit crunch, in September last year.

“This drop in volumes was always possible as around half of all transactions in recent years have been driven by aspirational or non needs based movers who are now sitting on their hands,” continued Mr Donnell.

“The net result is a sizable drop in transaction volumes which look set to reach levels not seen since the 1970s.”

Homes are also sitting on the market for longer, at an average of 10.3 per cent, and achieving a smaller percentage of asking prices, just 91.6 per cent.

Some 83.6 per cent of postcodes have also seen prices fall during June, suggesting the impact of the crunch is spreading geographically.

Just 53 per cent of postcodes saw prices fall during May.