House prices continue monthly fall
Wednesday 6th May 2009, 12:41PM BST.
Hopes of a housing recovery have been scuppered for another month after Halifax said prices fell 1.7 per cent in April.
The UK’s largest mortgage lender said the market was yet to plateau, despite the monthly fall slowing after a 1.9 per cent dip in March
Today’s figures mean house prices have fallen 17.7 per cent in the last year.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, predicts that “further house price declines are likely”.
“Rising unemployment, low consumer confidence and the reduced availability of credit are all expected to exert downward pressure on the housing market over the next few months,” he explained.
But as prices fall, affordability improves, with mortgage rates remaining low.
The house price to average earnings ratio has declined by 27 per cent, from a peak of 5.84 in July 2007 to an estimated 4.26 in April 2009 and it the lowest in six years. The long-term average is 4.0.
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