House prices in Britain rose at their fastest pace in over six years last month. New figures from Halifax Bank showed values had increased by 2.6 per cent in May, and was in sharp contrast to the fall in April.
The May figures show the average UK home is now up by more than pound stg. 4000 ($8000) to pound stg. 158,565. In April, prices fell to 13.6 per cent from 17.8 per cent.
This is only the third time that prices have gone up in the past 21 months, and the finding comes hot on the heels of separate figures from Nationwide showing a rise of 1.2 per cent during the month.
However, Halifax cautioned against reading too much into the figures, while other analysts said they signalled a "pause for breath" before further price falls, as rising unemployment and low wages stymied a recovery. House prices have fallen by 20 per cent since they peaked in August 2007.
Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Halifax, said: "Historically, house prices have not moved in the same direction month after month, even during a pronounced downturn."
But, she added the market was stabilising with other data backing up this claim. The Bank of England confirmed the number of mortgages approved rose in April and estate agents have reported an increase in buyer enquiries over the past six months.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said levels of activity were still historically low.
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