House prices – the news behind the news

Headlines out today suggest that house prices are falling, The Halifax said that house prices fell 1.2% in August and house prices are 2.6% lower now than a year ago – all pretty gloomy reading.

However the 3 month on 3 month measure showed that prices rose by 1% in the three months to the end of August compared with the previous quarter. August is a notoriously quiet month for house purchases so I think we need to wait and see what happens over the next couple of months – let’s hope we don’t see the double dip being muted at present, or we might see some serious falls in house prices!