House price headlines: hyperbole or fact?

This morning’s headlines about the housing market certainly looked gloomy. Today’s Times leads with a ‘House market stalls as economy falters’ which made a good headline but reflected a fairly excitable and sensational view of the market.

Of course a headline that says ‘Glut of houses for sale coincides with possible economic downturn following yet-to-come government cost cutting’ isn’t likely to shift newspapers, but it’s more accurate.

So let’s separate the facts from the hyperbole. House prices are falling or at least stagnating in many parts of the UK but this is not because the economy is ‘sagging’ but instead, many of the writers have omitted to point out until their later paragraphs, because there has been a huge surge in property for sale.

On FindaProperty.com this supply into the market has risen by 31 per cent over the past 12 months and by nine per cent alone in June – so there is no argument that, after a period of price rises, many sellers have decided to put their homes on the market and see what happens.