Inflation Falls as 'Cooling Market Bites

Rightmove has found the annual rate of inflation for house prices has dropped from 16.4% to 13.4% from September to October, the biggest month-on-month fall for over a year, as the market continues to cool off. The property website is now predicting that inflation will move into single figures in 2005. At present it says numbers of properties per estate agent have reached their highest levels in over two years, and properties are taking almost 10 weeks to sell, a significant increase up from 7.5 weeks in the spring. Miles Shipside, Rightmove?s commercial director, said: ?We continue to see a moderation in house price inflation, as wiser sellers adopt a more realistic view of the value of their homes. This shows that the successive interest rate rises, culminating the final quarter-point increase on August 5, had their desired effect of skimming the froth off the housing market.? Mr Shipside went on to explain that although Rightmove?s results may appear to conflict with those of the big mortgage lenders Halifax and Nationwide, their results would eventually reflect the slowdown, due to their being more of a delay with their data, and he predicted that their indices will start to fall soon.