Today’s release of data from Land Registry showed prices fairly flat in August, with the average house price in England and Wales £155,968, down 0.1% on the month and 9.4% on the year.
In US$ they rose $2,367 to $257,955. In Yen, up ¥374,219 to ¥2.451 million. The Euro price was down €625 to €180,876 and in Gold the price was down 8.19 ounces to 266.3 ounces, which is still a vast improvement on the February low of 229.8 ounces which was less than a third of the July 2004 high of 704.1 ounces. Though given the brief foray to £700 an ounce in February, the right purchaser could have traded even fewer ounces for the average property that month.
Our own Five Currencies Index chart, based on Land Registry and Bank of England data, has been updated. Whilst prices in £, $, ¥ and € may be at 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002 levels respectively, the price in gold is still down nearly two thirds form the 2004 peak and only barely above the January 1995 level.
Transactions Trending Up
The number of sales in June were up for a fifth straight month, at 48,903, and the highest since July 2008. It was also the second month above the 12-month simple moving average, which is now at 40,270. That said, the moving average is still in a downtrend and the approaching winter months are likely to prove the real test.
The interactive chart showing sales and average prices has been updated.
Quality Over Quantity

As can be seen in the above chart (which is also available via Flickr), quality is continuing to out perform quality. With detached properties continuing to prove themselves the preferred choice. In simple terms, the more neighbours the bigger the initial declines.
Given that those moving to detached properties are likely to have both reasonable income and equity, finance deals are more likely to be forthcoming. Buyers want quality homes and lenders want quality borrowers. Which is why the late-to-the-party bubble chasers and those who treated their homes as ATMers are failing to meet the tightened lending criteria.
Much of this also plays in to what I have discussed previously, especially in 2006’s ‘Sell Now! Why You Don’t Want to be a Homeowner’ and 2008’s ‘Killing the Homeowner Dream: Debt, Delusion and Demographics’. In particular the secular bears in homeownership, house prices on a P/E ratio and in personal debt and the secular bull in household size will impact housing and house prices over the long-term. The under supply of quality detached and semi-detached properties compared to the oversupply of flats should maintain the quality over quantity trend for some considerable time to come.