PREVIEW: UK Nov. Nationwide house prices forecast up 0.4% m/m, 2.4% y/y

UK lender Nationwide is expected to report that UK house prices rose 0.4% month on month in November, the same rate as October. While this would be the seventh consecutive monthly rise, growth is predictably tapering off ahead of Christmas from the 1.6% rate increase in August. Year on year, UK house prices are forecast up 2.4% in November versus 2% in October, the first positive number since March 2008. House prices have recovered after falling 17.6% in February. "The U.K. housing market now appears to be stabilising, after having troughed in February 2009, but there are uncertainties about the sustainability about the house price increases seen recently," said one UK-based economist. Unemployment, low wage growth and restrictive lending could keep a lid on prices in 2010. UK house prices are forecast to fall 7% for the year from a decline of 6.6% last year. Last month, Fitch warned that UK house prices could fall about 30 per cent in total from the October 2007 peak. Fitch estimated that prices were about 13% off their peak.