UK House Prices fell -9.0% in the year through March according to Rightmove, an online listing of for-sale properties. The pace of decline is effectively unchanged from the previous month’s record-setting -9.1%, suggesting the real estate slump that has eroded household wealth and cut consumption is showing now signs of abating. Market research agency GfK has predicted that a staggering 40% of British mortgage holders to be in negative equity by the end of this year, compounding already significant downward pressure on spending from rising unemployment with disastrous results for economic growth. A survey conducted by Bloomberg puts the output drop at -2.7% through 2009 and the International Monetary fund reckons the UK will face the deepest recession among the G7 nations.
