Tuesday July 1, 11:38 AM
House price slide fastest for 16 years
LONDON (ShareCast) - House prices fell at the fastest annual rate for 16 years in June, but the month -on-month pace of decline slowed, with the latest fall a third of that seen in the previous month. The Nationwide Building Society's house
price index fell 0.9% in June to a seaonally adjusted 342.3 from 345.5 in May, when the index showed a monthly fall of 2.5%.However, the year-on-year decline picked up pace, with June 2008 house prices 6.3% down on June 2007, compared with a 4.4% year-on-year decline in May. House prices are down 7.3% from the peak seen in October of last year but are still 4% higher than two years ago. The average selling price in the UK dipped to £172,415 in June, according to Nationwide, from £173,583 in May. "This is over £13,500 less than it would have cost at the top of the market and over £11,500 less than this time last year," said Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, in reference to the average selling price of houses. "However, the strength of house price growth up until last year means that prices are still 4% higher than two years ago and 9% higher than three years ago," she added. London remains the most expensive place to buy a house, despite a 3.8% dip in prices in the second quarter of 2008, while the north of England has the cheapest houses, on average. Nationwide's latest figures show Scotland registering the strongest annual price growth in house prices with Northern Ireland showing the weakest growth. Twelve out of the thirteen regions experienced year-on-year falls in house prices, Nationwide said.
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