Slump in sales can be bottoming out
Updated on 01 December 2008
House prices continued to fall during November but the slump in sales looks close to bottoming out, a property group said.
The cost of a home in England and Wales dropped by 1.1% during the month, to give an average house price of £161,400.
The annual rate of decline continued to increase to reach 8.1%, up from 7.3% in October, according to property intelligence group Hometrack.
Overall, house prices fell across 70% of postcode districts, although this was a slight improvement on the previous month when values dropped in 74% of areas.
Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said: "All of the indicators from the latest survey point to a continued fall in property prices in the short term.
"A weak economic outlook and limited availability of mortgages are set to keep prices under downward pressure in 2009.
"Despite this, transaction volumes may be close to bottoming out. The market has been stripped back to the bare bones and now comprises just a relatively small number of committed buyers able to access finance, and needs-based sellers who are having to become more realistic on pricing."
The group said this realism was reflected in a continued fall in the percentage of their asking price that homeowners were achieving, with this dropping to 88.9% during the month, although the rate at which it is falling has begun to slow.
At the same time the number of viewings needed to sell a property has fallen from a recent high of 15 in July to 13.5 in November, while the average time a property takes to sell has dropped slightly to 11.8 weeks from 11.9 weeks.
But the number of new sales agreed remained broadly static during the month, and there was a further fall in new buyers registering with estate agents.
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