However in comparison it has faired pretty well ending the year up by 1% over the course of 2011. Although not a massive positive move, it does demonstrate that the housing market has at least held it’s own.

The Nationwide statistics for December also report that in December the average price actually fell by -0.2%, leaving the typical home valued at £162,822.

Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:

“The 1% rise in house prices recorded over the past twelve months could hardly be described as a strong performance, but against a backdrop of anaemic economic growth and a deteriorating labour market, UK house prices were surprisingly resilient in 2011.

London however continued to buck the regional trend with nearly a 6% increase in prices, closely followed by the Outer Met with nearly 4%.

The largest loser was Northern Ireland with a massive -9% fall, the North West second but with a modest -1% fall.

“There has been less variation than usual in house price movements across the UK regions in recent quarters. Annual price changes in 10 of the 13 regions were clustered in a fairly narrow band between +2% and -2% in Q4. This trend is also evident in the two measures of regional house price variation shown below – the range (the highest rate of annual house price inflation recorded in a region during the quarter, compared to the weakest rate) and the standard deviation (which is a measure of how far price movements in all the regions deviate from the average).

The Rightmove December HPI sees only a 1.5% increase over the year 2011, ending quite an uncertain year pretty unchanged – albeit positive.

The average asking price for December was £223,766 – down -2.7% in the month from Novembers Index.

With RPI still at 5.2% this does actually represent nearly a 4% fall in real terms, but with wages failing to keep in line, affordability is not increased. However low bank interest levels have helped to maintain some sort of balance.

Regional Picture

Regional asking prices obviously differ with key highlights being:

• London tops the list as usual with an average price of £434,871 – yet this is down by -2.2% over the month but up 6.4% across the whole of 2011-12-20
• Second up is the South East with an average price of £289,014 – down -6.2% over the month and just up 1.4% in the year.
• Bottom of the table is the North. Average asking prices here are £141,555, surprisingly up over the month by 0.9% but over the whole of 2011 down by -3.0%

The average house price in the UK increased by a small 0.4% in November. However in does continue the gradual increase in prices seen by Nationwide recently.

Further the typical home is now 1.6% higher than 1 year ago, with an average house price of £165,798.

Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner,

Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:

“House prices have remained surprisingly resilient in recent months, despite the deterioration in the economic outlook. But, with the UK economic recovery expected to remain sluggish well into 2012, house price growth is likely to remain soft, with prices moving sideways or drifting modestly lower over the next twelve months.”

Resilient Property Market

It would seem that the demand for property in the UK still remains subdued, and is in fact reducing over the past few month.

“… many of the factors that underpin the demand for homes have deteriorated further in recent months. For example, the UK economy lost  almost 200,000 jobs in the three months to September – similar to the pace of job losses seen during the depths of the 2008 recession. At the same time, wage growth slowed to 1.7% – less than half the pace of inflation over the same period.”

In this is contrast to the small but significant rises in house prices.

London is again the only region that has seen an increase in average property price over the last 12 months, according to the Land Registry.

Overall in October England and Wales has seen a fall of -0.9% to leave the average house price at £159,999. This further represents a -3.2% annual changes since the same period last year.

Even though London has seen an increase annually, there was actually a fall of -1.6% in October, leaving the average house price at £340,308.

Regionally elsewhere the East has managed to see a 0.7% increase to £173,410, followed by the East Midlands with a 0.4% growth.

However Wales has seen a substantial fall of -3.0% to land with an average house price of £115,923.

The cheapest house prices remain in the North East though at £100,674 – a -1.8% fall in October and -7.2% over the whole year!

The Rightmove.co.uk House Price Index (HPI) for November 2011 sees a remarkable fall in house for sale prices and seller numbers.

The November figures reported a large fall of -3.1% which is in complete contrast to the sizable positive 2.8% rise last month.

This places the average asking price coming to the market at £232,144, down by a massive £7,528 – in just one month.

Unsurprisingly this is the largest monthly fall since December 2007, but more surprisingly the 3^rd largest percentage fall on record.

Seller numbers down

The uncertain economic outlook stemming from the Eurozone is also spooking seller numbers, with listing numbers down 13% on previous months.

This represents the lowest November level since Lehman Brothers collapsed!

Both a downturn in seller numbers and asking prices sends strong early warning signals to any sector reliant on consumer spending.

The Upside is….

As with most negative news there is likely to a be a flip side positive outcome.

With the impact of the Eurozone hitting the market, we are very likely seeing a early start to the normal seasonal slowdown.

This in turn will help to strengthen buyers’ negotiating power allowing  ’Winter bargain opportunities’ for investors fuelled by rising rents and intensifying competition among buy-to-let lenders.

Other key facts:

• The monthly average house price change was 1.2%, placing the average house price at £163,311
• The annual HPI change was -1.8%, however the average is marginally higher than at the end of 2010
• Small signs of a slight pick-up in housing activity reported by the Bank of England lending data for October
• Overall housing conditions are broadly unchanged through 2011.

Commenting, Martin Ellis, housing economist, said:

“The housing market has proved highly resilient in recent months despite the weak economic recovery and the deterioration in the outlook for both the UK and global economies.  Despite these developments, house sales and the supply of properties for sale have remained very stable since late 2010.  The prospect of exceptionally low official interest rates over the foreseeable future is likely to continue to support the market in the face of a very difficult economic climate.  Both prices and activity levels are expected to remain close to current levels over the coming few months.”

However the less volatile quarterly percentage change is down -0.3% and annual change (3 months to October compared to the same period last year) down -1.8%.

These figures continue the very mixed pattern to both the Halifax and other House Price Indices. Halifax has seen:

-       5 monthly rises

-       4 monthly falls

-       and 1 month of no change

Resilience

Generally the economies of the UK, Europe and globally have had a rough time recently with a weak recovery and deterioration in overall outlook.

This has not been helped by the uncertainty constantly dripping out of the Euro zone and the positives and negatives of the Greek crisis.

However the house market has not reacted as volatile as other markets.

Commenting, Martin Ellis, housing economist, said:

“The housing market has proved highly resilient in recent months despite the weak economic recovery and the deterioration in the outlook for both the UK and global economies. Despite these developments, house sales and the supply of properties for sale have remained very stable since late 2010. …… Both prices and activity levels are expected to remain close to current levels over the coming few months.”

Signs of slight pick up?

The Halifax also believe there are some signs of a slight positive change in housing activity in the market.

Although the property sales have stayed within a narrow range of ~70,000, the leading indicator of completed sales has actually nudged up

“The prospect of exceptionally low official interest rates over the foreseeable future is likely to continue to support the market in the face of a very difficult economic climate.”

The Land Resgistry House Price Index (HPI) for September 2011 reports a fall in house prices by -2.6% since last year, down to £162,019.

This represents a -0.3% fall since August and continues the negatives monthly price trend seen in August.

Unsurprisingly the only area in England and Wales that has seen an increase over the last 12 months is London, with a change of +2.7%.

The North West however experienced the greatest monthly rise of 1.0% – annually a fall of -2.7%. The North East had the greatest fall of -3.9% over the month, annually a fall of -8.2%

House Sales

House sales figures were also down, descreasing 11% in July to 59,919. The properties sold for over £1 million decreased by a massive 24% to 707.

Average National Property prices are therefore £239,672 against £233,139 in September.

Yet this national figures masks the underlying two tier property market taking place within the UK.

The south is pulling away from the north with rises of 4.7% – setting new records. This is in stark contrast to the north that falls back 0.7% – levels first seen over six years ago – back in May 2005.

Elsewhere there have been slight easings in the mortgage famine with the highest mortgage approvals since November 2009.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove comments:

“Wider access to mortgages and rising asking prices are early signs of increasing demand, giving home owners some grounds for hope of a market recovery. However, the reality is that there is further evidence of the two-tier twist which is dogging the return to more widespread liquidity in the housing market. While those in the affluent south may have cause to celebrate their prices being well up on this time last year, prices in the north continue to go backwards, leaving the widest price gap ever. For the average asking price of a property in the south you could now buy two average properties in the north and still have enough change left to buy new carpets and curtains.”

Regions of England & Wales

The Halfifax HPI for September reported very much the same as other House price Indices, continuing the static market caused by the ongoing uncertainty in the wider economy.

Halifax reports prices a smidge down by -0.5% last month to £161,132, which represents a Quarterly change of 0.1% but an annual fall of -2.3%.

The has continued the mixed pattern seen by Halifax throughout this year, with an equal number of rises (four months) and falls (four months) and 1 month that was unchanged…..pretty much demonstrating the flat nature of the housing market across most of the UK.

Property Sales

Property sales have remain failry unchanged as well during 2011 and according to HMRC figures have stuck within a narrow band around 70,000 per month.

However the industry-wide number of mortgage approvals for dwellings (house purchases) have actually increased for four consecutive months to August.