House prices drop again

Telegraph - Prices fell at an annual rate of 17.5 per cent during the month, compared with record annual drops of 17.7 per cent in February – based on Halifax's preferred measure of comparing prices during the previous three months with the same period a year earlier.
The figures contrast with those reported by Nationwide on Thursday, which showed a surprise 0.9 per cent jump in house prices during March.

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House prices fall, leading to a record annual rate of decline, Halifax reveals
UK house prices rose in March for first time since 2007, Nationwide survey shows
Economists cautioned against reading too much into the Nationwide price rise, warning that while the market may have bottomed out, any recovery still remained a long way off.
Today's Halifax figures are more in line with expectations for the market at a time when the country is in recession and unemployment is rising.
But despite the steep monthly price fall, which followed a drop of 2.3 per cent in February, Halifax said there were "tentative signs that activity may be beginning to stabilise".
With the average property in the UK now costing £157,326, the house price to earnings ratio – a key measure of affordability – has fallen to 4.34, its lowest level since early 2003 and down from a peak of 5.84 in July 2007.
Recent steep interest rate cuts have also reduced the amount of income taken up by mortgage repayments from a peak of 26.9 per cent in October last year, to a three-and-a-half year low of 22.6 per cent last month.
Figures from the Bank of England released earlier this week showed the number of mortgages approved for house purchase jumped by 19 per cent during February, while a report out yesterday signalled that the banks and building societies thought they would increase mortgage lending during the coming three months.
Halifax added that house prices were around 2.7 per cent lower during the first quarter than they had been in the previous one, compared with falls of 5 per cent to 6 per cent recorded during each of the previous three quarters.
But despite the recent run of positive data on the property market, the group said it was too early to talk about a recovery.
Martin Ellis, Halifax housing economist, said: "Conditions in the housing market are likely to be tough during the remainder of 2009 despite the improvements in affordability.
"Increasing unemployment, low consumer confidence and the constraining effects of the continuing dislocation of the financial markets on the availability of mortgage finance are all likely to exert downward pressure on the market over the coming months."

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