Rightmove says prices continue to hold steady but warns of "fragmented and uncertain" 2012.
Estate agent website rightmove says house prices have ended 2011 slightly higher than a year ago. But it warns that next year will be “fragmented and uncertain”.
House prices in England and Wales were up 1.5% on December 2010, but down 2.7% on November, a second successive monthly fall. It says new sellers’ asking prices fell by 2.7% in December but the average time a property is on the market is broadly flat at around 90 days.
Regionally, the biggest annual falls have been in Yorkshire and Humberside (down 3.6%), the north of England (3%) and the north west (2%). London continues to buck the national trend, and to some extent prop up the overall average figure, with prices increasing by an average of 6.4%.
Rightmove says it expects asking prices to rise by around 2% in 2012, due to a shortage of new properties coming onto the market. But it says sellers must know their local market as selling at too high a price will only lead to “stagnation”.
It believes there are micro-markets within regions, with noticeable price differences within a few miles.
Overall, rightmove is forecasting prices to “fall, or at best stand still” in 2012. And it says that the outcome of the Eurozone crisis will also have a potentially significant part to play if it squeezes the availability of mortgage credit.
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