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Tuesday 30th March 2010
House prices bounce back after fall
House prices bounced back during March after falling for the first time in 10 months in February, figures show.
The average cost of a UK home rose by 0.7% during the month, largely reversing February's 0.8% drop, according to Nationwide.
But the latest rise is unlikely to end speculation over whether February's drop was caused by one-off factors, or marked the start of a new trend in the housing market.
Some economists had argued that the slide could not just be attributed to the end of the Government's stamp duty holiday and the bad weather seen during the early part of the year, but instead showed the recovery was running out of steam.
Nationwide's three-month-on-three-month index, which is generally seen as a smoother indicator of market trends, showed a further slowdown in price growth this month, with a rise of only 1.6% during the three months to the end of March, compared with 1.8% for the three months to the end of February.
Figures released by the Bank of England earlier this week also showed that the number of mortgages approved for house purchase had dropped for the third consecutive month to a nine-month low, suggesting activity in the housing market continues to remain subdued.
Source: Press Association