Are House Prices Still Rising? March 2024
Welcome to this month's market update.
As always, in this video, we will take a quick look back at what has been happening over the last month and try and look ahead to what we expect for the next few months and beyond.
Growing House Prices?
So my big question right now is…. Are prices set to start growing again? Now this may strike you as the ever optimistic estate agent backing the market but for those who have watched me for some time you will know I am happy to call a fall when we see one but equally the opposite appears to be happening once again.
Since the start of the year we have seen a 17% increase in the number of buyers searching for their next property and a 19% increase in the number of sales agreed which all suggests a market in the resurgence after a tricky start to 2023.
Don’t just take my word for it…. The most recent Rightmove Asking Price index showed a 1.5% rise in the average price of property coming to market which is higher than the historic average for March and the biggest single increase for 10 months.
Available Property Growth is Slowing
Conversely we have now also started to see the growth in available property for sale starting to plateau after a period of big growth. If you look at this graph on the video, you can see through 2021 we were operating with a very low level of available property for sale which fuelled the big jump in prices we saw as supply remained constrained. Then we hit the end of 2022 and the mini budget. Sales slowed and available property spiked. But now we are seeing that growth end and this in my view is why we will start to see some price growth across the market once more.
And indeed some of the other indexes outside of Rightmove are saying the same.
- Land Reg – monthly change 0.5% annual -0.5%
- Nationwide – monthly change -0/2% but annual now up 1.6%
- Halifax – 0.4% monthly change and 1.7% annual.
But don’t get too excited just yet. There is no doubt that although things are improving it remains a much more price sensitive market. Push things too far and a property will be sat on market. Again Rightmove confirmed this in their recent report saying that the average time to sell is now at the highest nationally for 5 years at 71 days. Im pleased to say we are performing much better than this and I believe you will find now that your choice of agent is more critical than it has been for many years.
Looking Foward
Looking ahead its hard to see much changing this trajectory for the next few months. An interest rate fall is expected in the coming months and mortgage lenders continue to lend and at far better rates.
Beyond this we of course will have an election and this could very well create a change in the market.
