Deciphering the Fog of Data on the U.K. Housing Market - The Source - WSJ

Deciphering the Fog of Data on the U.K. Housing Market - The Source - WSJ

If you have a theory on the U.K. housing market, you’ll probably find something to support it in Friday’s baffling torrent of property-related data.

If you think the market might strengthen, the Bank of England’s data on mortgage approvals showed the biggest rise in over a year in June. Approvals are a good forward-looking indicator of house prices: more approvals mean more people about to buy a house. That increase in demand should push prices up in time.

But maybe you think house prices are going to fall. Another, slightly less forward-looking indicator from the BOE report certainly points in that direction. Net mortgage lending fell by just under £100 million, the first decline this year, indicating that people on the whole are paying off their mortgage debt faster than it is being borrowed.