House Price Trendometer
A couple of weeks ago rightmove launched a new tool called the house price trendometer, which is designed to show house price trends country wide over the last 13 years.
The tool is interactive and shows both decline and growth of property asking prices in as many as 54 counties in England and Wales from October 2001 to the present day.
There are also key date markers showing stand out events in the housing market, such as:
- The launch of the Help to Buy scheme in April 2013 (phase I) designed to kick-start the housing market by helping first time buyers to borrow upto 20% of a new build property value from the government and
- In October 2013 phase II was launched, which opened up to all buyers allowing the purchase of properties both old and new upto value of £600,000.
It also shows events such as the higher interest rates of 5.75% in August 2007 to low interest rate level of 0.5% in March 2009 and even the points referencing the housing recessions.
House prices took a major hit in January 2009 when mortgage approvals dropped to less than 22,000 a month due to a tighter lending criteria.
The tool is updated monthly and intends to show connections between the market and world events on the UK housing market. For home owners this can be a useful quick overview source to obtain an idea of price movements in their own area or even a potential new location. From the perspective of the investor this tool seems to show how other areas of the country may offer better rental or capital returns based on a base level of investment.
What do you think of this tool?