The protracted housing slump that has devastated U.S. home prices now appears to have fully-enveloped the United Kingdom. Home prices in the United Kingdom in August fell at their fastest pace in two decades (pdf), U.K.-based mortgage lender Nationwide Building Society announced Thursday.
On a year-over-year basis, the average price of a U.K. home plummeted 10.5% to $301,500 or 164,654 British pounds in August, NBS said. Further, it was the first year-over-year double-digit decline in the U.K. since 1990.
London-based economist Mark Chandler told BloggingStocks Thursday the August U.K. housing data, "is just dreadful."
"Housing in the U.K. is becoming a bit of a 'magical mystery tour,' to borrow a phrase from The Beatles. For a month or so, we thought the declines in home prices had moderated. Apparently not," Chandler said. "Tighter lending requirements and real concern about the economy have sapped sales and it's really showing up in the price data."
On a year-over-year basis, the average price of a U.K. home plummeted 10.5% to $301,500 or 164,654 British pounds in August, NBS said. Further, it was the first year-over-year double-digit decline in the U.K. since 1990.
London-based economist Mark Chandler told BloggingStocks Thursday the August U.K. housing data, "is just dreadful."
"Housing in the U.K. is becoming a bit of a 'magical mystery tour,' to borrow a phrase from The Beatles. For a month or so, we thought the declines in home prices had moderated. Apparently not," Chandler said. "Tighter lending requirements and real concern about the economy have sapped sales and it's really showing up in the price data."
Sales of new homes fell 2.8% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 588,000 in January 2008, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday (
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