Home prices in the U.K. stopped posting monthly decrease to open the second quarter on strengthening demand, marking the first non-decline in 10 months, according to Bloomberg News. On Monday, Hometrack reported that the average cost of a home in the U.S. was unchanged in April from the previous month at £153,100, which was the first time since June that a monthly decline was not recorded. The improvement was driven by a 0.3% increase in London’s prices, and was linked to increasing demand.
The number of prospective buyers registering with realtors in the U.K. has jumped 22% so far during 2011, which Richard Donnell of Hometrack said “has eased the downward pressure on house prices, which have been supported by a recent tightening in available supply.” Separately, Rightmove has reported that only one in for Britons is expecting a decline in home prices over the next 12 months, which is better than the one-in-three seen in the last three months of 2010. Donnell added, “The second half of 2011 is likely to emerge as a new phase where rising supply will constrain any further improvement in pricing levels.”