House prices holding steady, says Halifax

House prices are holding steady after a wobbly end to last year. The average house price was £285,476 last month, according to the Halifax house price index — 2.1% higher than this time last year. That annual rate of house price inflation has been steady for three months in a row. Prices rose by 1.1% between January and February, whereas economists had expected a decline of about 0.3%. But Halifax’s data goes against what was reported last week by Nationwide, which estimated that prices fell for the sixth consecutive month in February and were now 1.1% below where they were at the start of last year. The Times (£)