Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Happy days are here again...

Good news on the housing front: Halifax Building Society has recorded a 1.6% increase in house prices for September and says that they have now risen in five monthly periods since the beginning of 2009. There are now serious hopes of a return to the bubble that sadly ended in 2008.

House prices have risen overall by 1.7% during 2009, reducing the previous 10% year on year fall to a mere 7.4%. Over recent months, Nationwide figures have been even more optimistic than those of the Halifax, suggesting that further rises are feasible and increasing hopes that the 'bubble is back'.

A building society spokesman said: If Gordon Brown can pressure the Bank of England to keep interest rates at an all time low and ignore the inflationary effects of future prices rises as he did last time round, then there is a good chance that we can return to the heady days of 2007, when it was Champagne and bonuses all round and everyone sailed majestically towards the glorious abyss of 2008.

The government has duly confirmed that since there is a General Election next year it would make perfect sense for people to focus on positive issues such as economic recovery and their own asset wealth. "When people realise once again that they can ignore ballooning credit card debt because it is dwarfed by recent house price rises, they will know that they are on to a good thing with Labour."

8 comments:

  1. Good news indeed... for a moment we all thought that house prices were in danger of becoming affordable again!

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  2. Fair enough about inflation, but they are not actually inflationary (yet).
    Lets see what Brown (or I should say, the BofE) does in months to come.

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  3. It is worth noting that the shares of house building companies are languishing, so clearly not everyone believes that rises are sustainable

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  4. Mark Evans point about seeing 'what Brown... does in months to come...' should also say 'this side of a general election'.

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  5. HSBC is apparently predicting a W shaped recession (according to a very recent statement).
    So this 'pick up' in the market is quite likely to be what they call a 'dead cat bounce'

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  6. The weak pound is increasing the interest of overseas buyers (esp London) and many lenders have reduced interest rates this week to some amazing rates - the mortgage war is hotting up once again...

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  7. So, no interest rate rises in the next 6-8 months then...

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  8. Weakening of the pound could also lead to inflation rises which might necessitate action sooner rather than later

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