March seemed to be a good month in quite a few ways, with better weather, longer days and signs that the housing market was starting its slow ascent from the pits of gloom and doom. Last week's news from Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) further backs this up, with its March report showing increasing momentum in the housing market.
March seemed to be a good month in quite a few ways, with better weather, longer days and signs that the housing market was starting its slow ascent from the pits of gloom and doom. Last week's news from Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) further backs this up, with its March report showing increasing momentum in the housing market.
According to the report, published on the RICS website, the key points from the March report are:
* New buyer enquiries rise for the fifth consecutive month leading to an increase in both newly agreed sales and sales expectations
* The sales to stock ratio edges upwards for the third successive month to stand at its best level since August 2008
* New instructions continue to decline resulting in inventory on estate agents books dropping to the lowest level since September 2007
Significantly, the report shows that the unsettled signs of a pick-up in activity have become more broadly based over the past month.
New buyer enquiries have now increased for five consecutive months with the positive net balance in March climbing to its best level since September 2003.
If house selling and buying continues to rise, the much needed injection of cash into the economy could well help to increase the speed of the recovery from the recessions, but we must still be wary that we are going to be in tough times for at least another year.
From a savers point of view, leaving your money in the bank and earning next to little interest might seem pointless, but buying a few houses at the much reduced price compared to a year ago would make perfect sense. You will not find those kind of returns in a savings account, but taking into account the growth of houses prices that will of course happen over the next five years and also any rental income you may gain from the property, using your savings to buy houses now is almost the perfect strategy to make you secure in the future.
We seem to be seeing far more positive reports regarding the housing market compared to six or even three months ago, and if the news continues to consistently offer signs that the market is starting to stabilise and then recover, we might just see a glimmer of hope at the end of what is hopefully a shortening tunnel, the tunnel we call the recession of 2009!
By Ian Spencer who blogs at www.discoverandinvest.com
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