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House Prices Fall For The First Time In 2022

After six consecutive months of record house prices, the average price has finally gone down by nearly £5,000, although experts are split as to whether this is the first sign of a trend or more an effect of the summer heatwave.

According to the House Price Index by Rightmove, house prices fell by 1.3 per cent to an average of £365,173, although this is still significantly higher than house prices were at the start of 2022.

The story told by Hackney estate agents highlights this fact, as prices are 6 per cent higher than they were at the same time last year.

The beginning of a fall in house prices has been predicted for a long time as an inevitable consequence of nearly two years of constant record highs in the housing market.

The inflation rate reaching over 10 per cent for the first time in over a decade, the Bank Rate (which affects mortgage rates reaching its highest point since the 2008 financial crisis and soaring costs in other areas have suggested that house prices are heading towards a fall, albeit not a crash.

However, some experts are claiming that this August drop is not a sign of change in the housing market but simply a consequence of the summer holidays.

Traditionally, prices fall in August as a result of the summer holidays and sellers pricing competitively to try and lock in buyers so they can move in before Christmas.

This is compounded by Summer 2022 being the hottest on record and this being the first summer since 2019 not to have faced some form of disruption.

As well as this, whilst the supply of houses is increasing, there is still a significant disparity between the number of buyers and the number of sellers, meaning that there is still the potential for prices to rise further before the end of the year.