UK Housing Prices Drop, But Still Ahead of Start of Year

The housing market revival continued in August despite the first dip in sellers’ asking prices this year, a property website has reported.

Asking prices edged down by 1.8% month-on-month to £249,199 on average – but a string of price increases over the last seven months means they are still £20,000 higher than at the start of 2013, Rightmove said.

In further signs of the market gathering pace, asking prices on flats reached a record high at £209,652. Flats are in strong demand due to high numbers of buy-to-let investors looking for decent returns and a recent surge in first-time buyers, who are finding it easier to access a mortgage, entering the market.

Asking prices on flats are up 5.9% year-on-year, indicating that first-time buyers, who traditionally buy this type of property, will potentially have to stretch themselves further to get on the housing ladder.

via The Guardian

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza