House prices drop for the first time this year

Category: Mortgages
Date: 7/19/2010

With house prices dropping, now could be the time to start searching for your dream home at a bargain price.

House prices declined by 0.6% on average in July (£236,332), following a 0.3% rise in June (£237,767), according to property website Rightmove..

This is the first month in 2010 that new sellers have dropped their asking prices.

The trend looks set to continue with gains of 7% in 2010 so far expected to be entirely eroded by the end of the year.

This is bad news for anyone looking to sell their house, as new seller numbers now outstrip new mortgage approvals by approximately 5:2.

"The number of new mortgages being approved each month is less than half the number of new sellers, with the imbalance being exacerbated by the increase of nearly 50% in the number of properties coming to market compared to a year ago," said Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove.

Sellers are also going to have to try extra hard to make a sale in what has become a saturated market.

Figures show that over 30,000 properties are coming to the market each week, up by 45% on July of last year.

Putting a property up for sale recently became more affordable as a result of the coalition Government's decision to abolish Home Information Packs.

"With estate agents beginning to choke on a surfeit of new stock, sellers are going to have to price at bargain levels and bullishly promote their properties in order to stand out from the crowd," said Mr. Shipside.

"More aggressive pricing is now the order of the day, which means that conditions are ripe for a strong buyers' market in the second half of 2010."

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