·
The
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) said that 78.5% more surveyors
reported a fall than a rise in house prices in March. This was the weakest
reading since RICS began the survey back in 1978. Since
1999 new sales prices and price expectations are on the lowest readings we have
seen.
· Still anther house price survey, this one from an official source, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), provided evidence that house price pressures were easing in the UK but not yet actually falling. In that report, the DCLG found that annual house price inflation in February (not March) was up by 6.7%, lower than the 8.0% recorded on the same basis in January. The average house price in February was Stg217,737, down from Stg221,278 in January, a monthly drop of 1.6%. The DCLG records prices when sales are concluded using data from completed mortgages and therefore are considered to be the most accurate of the surveys but they lag other market generated sources. Right now all methods are showing some weakening in home prices. The RICS survey results are among the most gloomy.