OPTIMISM in the housing market has grown in recent months, with more Britons predicting prices will rise this year than those forecasting a fall, a study has found.
Nearly a third (29%) of those surveyed believe house prices will increase in the next 12 months, Halifax said, up from 28% when a similar report was compiled in October, while 22% predict a decline, down from 30% when the study was conducted previously.
However, most people believe the market will be stable rather than see any sharp change, with twothirds not expecting to see any increase or decrease of more than 5%.
Those expecting rises outweighed those predicting falls in eight out of 11 regions, compared with just three regions when the research took place in October.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “We expect broad stability in prices in 2012, although there remains much ambiguity around this.’’
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