Many housing experts believe that house prices still need correcting and need to lower to more affordable levels.  However, there are homeowners that are in need of property values rising to give them adequate equity levels to remortgage with the best deals from lenders.  According to a report from Halifax there was a modest increase to house prices in the first quarter of the year.  There was an increase of 1.1% in a comparison of the first quarter of 2013 with the first three months of 2012.

While an increase in the quarterly comparison offers optimism, there was a slowing down of the rate of increase in a month to month comparison.  The reduction in growth has led Halifax to forecast a small increase in house prices for 2013 rather than a more rapid growth level.

Martin Ellis, chief housing economist with Halifax, said “Weak income growth and continuing below-trend economic growth are likely to remain significant constraints on housing demand during the remainder of this year.

“Overall, we expect to see a modest increase in UK house prices during 2013.”

There are many homeowners that are looking for rising property values to help pull them out of negative equity levels.  Negative equity occurs then a homeowner’s property value plummets below the level of mortgage debt on the property.  Negative equity prevents a homeowner from remortgaging.  This is disheartening when there are attractive remortgage deals currently available from lenders.  There has been a wave of more relaxed lending for homeowners with lower equity levels as lenders seek to offer better deals to those shopping for a new remortgage, which should be encouraging to those that are considering a new deal.