Accounting - Monday, June 23, 2008 8:05 - 0 Comments

House price growth cools

Asking prices for homes in England and Wales stood 0.1 percent higher on a year ago in June, with the rate of annual price growth cooling from 2.2 percent in May, a survey shows.

Property website Rightmove said average asking prices fell 1.2 percent this month after a 1.2 percent gain in May. That put the average asking price at 239,564 pounds.

The figures, which are not adjusted to take seasonal factors in the market into account, are less gloomy than some other surveys but reinforce the view that the once-red hot housing market is feeling the impact of the credit crunch.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s commercial director, said home sellers’ expectations had fallen.

"The adjustment is belated but in some ways welcome as it makes homes affordable for buyers," he said. "Thankfully, new sellers are now taking some proactive steps to price more realistic from the outset to attract increasingly hard-pressed buyers."

Banks have actually been raising their mortgage lending rates even as official borrowing costs have been falling, making buying a home less affordable.

SOURCE:Reuters