UK House Prices Situation: Most areas stagnating, some small falls

UK House Prices Forecast: Overall negative outlook for 2008

RICS Reveals Worst Figures Since 1992

RICS, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, this week revealed its most negative monthly figures since November 1992.

49.2% more surveyors reported falling house prices than rising prices in December 2007. This is considerably worse than November 2007, when the equivalent figure was 40.6%.

House prices in East Anglia and the West Midlands fared worse - with only a few areas of Scotland managing small increases.

RICS spokesman Ian Perry said that "The housing market is clearly feeling the pinch from the credit crunch and the round of interest rate hikes in 2007"

RICS monthly survey of its members is considered a strong indicator of emerging trends and sentiment in the housing market. With so many surveyors reporting falls in prices, it seems inevitable that the general trend will be negative over the next few months.

UK Housing Wealth Exceeds £4 Trillion

Despite all the doom and gloom about the credit crunch and falling house prices, it is worth stopping to take stock of just how much housing equity the UK's homeowners actually have.

New figures published this week by the Halifax show that the nation's mortgage debt totals around £1.2tn - a significant amount, but only around 30% of the estimated £4tn total value of all private housing.

The significance of these figures for many homeowners should be that even if house prices fall by as much as 15% - 20%, many people will still have some equity left in their properties. This should lessen the impact of falling house prices for many people.

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