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Thursday, November 30, 2006

House prices and sales



Here are some interesting charts that I came across. Click on each to expand them and then use the back button on your browser to read the rest of this text.
One shows prices paid (red is high and blue is low) and the other is the numbers of house sales with red being very popular housing areas and blue being much slower sales. Both are for early 2005.
In summary the prices are lowest in East Wirral, particularly around Tranmere and Rock Ferry whilst the sales activity is also highest in the same areas.

By the same token you can see from these maps that the highest prices - West Wirral and in particular areas around Gayton and Caldy are also the places where the house sales are slowest.

Now call me a ninny if you like but isn't this what housing markets are supposed to do - encourage sales where prices are lowest and discourage sales where they are highest?
Nothing wrong with that you might think. But then you have the problem that we are in the midst of our HMRI which is supposed to be justified on the basis that the housing market has failed in Tranmere and Rock Ferry. Makes you think a bit.
Have a look at the graphs for yourselves. They are from a York University paper to a housing conference earlier this year.

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