The latest Hometrack city index report includes an interesting analysis of how house prices have recovered since the financial crisis in 2008. Three of the 20 cities included in the regular analysis - Belfast, Aberdeen and Liverpool are all still below their 2008 levels at -28%, -3% ad -1% respectively. Joining them in the bottom 5 are Glasgow just 1% up over 10 years and Newcastle +3%.
Oxford comes in 3rd in the list at +55% behind Cambridge (+70%) and London (+65%) and ahead of Bristol (+53%) and Portsmouth (+36%) which complete the top 5 Cities in the index.
It is interesting to note that the top performers are currently experiencing a relative lull in house price growth whereas the poorer performers are top of the current charts for house price growth including Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham.
Over the last 3 months Oxford prices have been flat at just 0.1% increase overall, and recording a 0.5% reduction over the last month. Over the last 12 months Oxford remains in positive territory showing growth of 0.5%.
Cambridge and London each of which have seen some negative pressure over recent months have recovered and move back into positive territory albeit tentatively. It appears as if Oxford is perhaps following them into a short period of negative growth, albeit less marked, and to date having avoided overall reduction.
The Oxford house sale market is characterised by many available properties, giving buyers choice, with many properties selling below asking price, a trend tha is now apparent via land registry data. July and August are often subdued months for house prices, so it will be interesting to see how the market reacts as we move into September.
