The housing market in England and Wales is “in broad equilibrium” despite prices continuing to edge lower, according to Hometrack, which recorded a 0.1% fall in the value of the typical dwelling in July, compared with June.
However, there are wide regional variations: prices moved higher across 8% of postcodes (primarily in London) and were lower across 27% of postcodes, with two fifths of the falling areas located in the South East and South West.
The housing intelligence firm reckons the balance between supply and demand has improved over the last six months, largely as a result of steady growth in demand since the beginning of the year, and says sales agreed have leapt 20% since May.
In addition, the proportion of asking price achieved has remained steady at around 92.7% and the length of time the average vendor spends on the market stands at 9.4 weeks, down from 9.7 weeks in June.
Hometrack’s survey is based upon responses from 5,000 agents and surveyors across all 2,300 postcodes in England and Wales.
