House prices rise in July

Nationwide's figures for July show that house prices grew by 0.8%. This more significant rise follows three months of slow growth in the property market, and pushes the annual growth rate to 5.9%. This brings the average house price to £167,733.

Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Group Economist, said “Indicators of market activity suggest that housing market demand remains fairly buoyant. This will help to support prices, at least in the short term. House purchase approvals picked up surprisingly strongly to 120,000 in June to equal the peak at the turn of the year. Indicators of demand early in the house purchase process have also been fairly positive. Estate agents’ stock to sales ratio is a good indicator of changes in the balance of supply and demand in the market and of the direction of house price movements a few months later. The stock to sales ratio has been climbing since the summer of last year. However, the ratio has been broadly stable for the last three months which may suggest some softening in price increases in the latter part of the year."

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