BOURNEMOUTH HOUSING MARKET – Up or Down Which is it ?

These NEWS HEADLINES have all been within 2 days of each other

“House prices surge”

“House prices fall”

So which is it ?

Well the first thing to remember is that Headlines are there to grab your attention.  The second thing to consider is what exactly is being measured ?  Is it:

-          Change in Average House Price ?

-          Or Adjusted Change in Average House Price (allowing for inflation) ?

-          Or Change in House Price Growth ?

And is it

-          Monthly change ?

-          Or Year on Year change ?

The simplest but least dramatic measure which most buyers and sellers will want to focus on is the monthly change in actual House Price – unadjusted – and here it is for the Bournemouth District. 

• the highest the average price ever got to was £349,724 in Nov 22
• since then the lowest it dropped to was £318,832 in Feb 24.  A fall of 8.4% from the peak.

These are the most recent Averages (NB these are actual completed sales so we still await the Land Registry updates for March and April)

Data for March and April in the news is coming form the Lenders Mortgage Offer records and they are showing are very small 0.2% reduction in March and a 0.4% reduction in April. 

The less dramatic summary of all this is that House Prices are bumping along the bottom – neither falling or surging at the moment.

We’re all hoping that this year sees some growth coming back into the market and given the history of average house prices it’s reasonable to expect that.  For right now though it’s best to expect not much change or drama.