Halifax’s June house price index shows house prices rose 1% in June compared to May. Year-on-year house prices are down 0.5% and in the last three months they have fallen by 0.3% – the average house price now stands at £162,417.
Halifax’s housing economist Martin Ellis says that the end of the stamp duty holiday in March appears to have distorted house price movements and sales in recent months.
But he says that there has been a significant improvement in the annual rate of change in the last year as in May 2011 house prices were falling 4.2%. In contrast, there has been broad stability recently with the annual rate between 0% and – 0.5% in each of the past three months.
However, Capital Economics says Halifax’s index seems to have been more strongly affected than other series by the volatility in sales generated by the most recent stamp duty holiday.