House prices up in July

[brian]

The Nationwide is reporting that house prices continue to grow steadily through July:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5233720.stm

House price growth picked up in July and the overall market remains "fairly buoyant", according to the Nationwide.
The building society's latest housing survey found that prices rose by 0.8% last month, up from 0.3% in June, pushing the annual growth rate to 5.9%.
The rise means the average UK property now costs £167,733.
The three-monthly trend showed that prices rose by 1.2% in the three months to July compared with the previous three months.

However, the Bank of England meets on Thursday, and they may yet start to move towards an interest rate rise to keep the economy cooled, especially as inflation is moving up beyond target.

Either way, despite concerns about affordability, it seems that while demand for housing remains strong, we could see a continued run of increases on the property markets.

This is especially because of continued increases in mortgage approvals:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5230716.stm

New mortgage approvals reached 120,000 in June, official figures have shown - the highest level for five months.
The Bank of England (BoE) said that approvals were 3,000 higher than May's figure, although total new mortgage debt was slightly lower in June.
House price inflation in the UK during 2006 has outstripped most analysts' forecasts, and the BoE figures suggest this trend is continuing.