House prices fall on snow and stamp duty

Prices dropped by 1.5% in February compared with the previous month to leave the average house price at £166,587. Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, says the increase in the number of properties available for sale helped to reduce slightly the imbalance between supply and demand, which led to a fall in house prices. "At the same time, the bad weather in the first two months of 2010, together with the return of the lowest stamp duty threshold to £125,000, are likely to have had an adverse impact on housing demand. "The combination of these factors appears to have helped to ...