House prices nudge up in June
House prices rose unexpectedly in June, though the housing market is likely to hold broadly steady in the remainder of 2012, mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday.
Halifax said house prices rose by one per cent in June, confounding economists’ forecasts for a 0.2 percent decline. House prices in May rose by 0.4 percent, a downward revision from an originally reported 0.5 per cent.
In the three months to June compared with a year ago, prices fell by 0.5 per cent, beating forecasts for a 0.8 per cent decline.
Halifax economist Martin Ellis said that low levels of mortgage payments relative to income and recent increases in employment may have helped support house prices so far this year.
“We expect little change in prices and sales over the remainder of the year provided that the UK’s economic outlook does not deteriorate significantly,” he said.