Global| Apr 15 2008U.K. RICS Survey at All-time Low for House Prices
Summary
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 [...]
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.
| RICS: House Prices and Expectations for Prices and Sales | Range | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar-08 | Feb-08 | Jan-08 | 3Mo Avg | 6Mo Avg | 12Mo Avg | Percentile | |
| Prices | -79 | -66 | -55 | -67 | -52 | -22 | 0.0% |
| Price Expectations | -73 | -58 | -56 | -62 | -56 | -31 | 0.0% |
| Sales expectations | -15 | 1 | -11 | -8 | -10 | -4 | 7.8% |
| New Sales | -50 | -34 | -29 | -38 | -33 | -23 | 0.0% |
| Range percentile takes range back to 1999 | |||||||
Robert Brusca
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.
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