… where they should be if you’re a fan of mean reversion anyway. But still nowhere near as low as they will be if previous downward trends are to be believed (more like nearly halfway there).
To wit, the Nationwide UK house price survey numbers are out today and they echo those from Halifax last week: December was a bad month for UK house prices.
Nationwide reports a fall of 2.5 per cent, bringing the fall over the past 12 months to 15.9 per cent. There’s the usual panglossian take from the Nationwide economists which we reprise for your reading pleasure.
The price of a typical house fell by 2.5% in December, a stark contrast with the modest fall of 0.4% in November. This brings the annual rate of fall over the last twelve months to 15.9%. However the three-month on three-month rate, which smoothes the volatility often seen in the monthly numbers, shows a fall of only 4.2% in December. This is its slowest pace since May 2008. The price of a typical house is now £153,048, around the same level as of spring 2005, but still over £17,500 more than five years ago.
Definitely more Candide than candid.