Small drop in house prices is minor good news for new buyers

In March, the average house price dropped by about £1,500 on a £300,000 house. Assuming this carries into April, this partially makes up for the extra £2,500 that home movers will have to fork out for stamp duty, but they will still have to find an extra £1,000 from somewhere.

For first time buyers, it is good news (as long as they stick to a price of £300,000 or less) – it will save them the princely sum of about £9 per month on an average mortgage, while home movers will have to fork out an extra £6.

Most pundits believe this is just a correction from the stamp duty stampede – back in January and February sellers could get a bit more because buyers got a bit panicky about the stamp duty increases.

What house prices will be doing over the next 6 to 12 months is an open question, nobody really knows, not even Donald ….