It’s a bit of a mystery with many analysts and commentators scratching their heads at the economic news coming through. House prices continue to go through the roof, whilst car sales have crashed.

According to the latest data released this morning by Halifax, house prices rose 1.1 per cent month-on-month in April. This is now the tenth consecutive monthly rise and is the longest uninterrupted run of increases since 2016.

Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said: “Despite the current economic uncertainty, the strong increases we’ve seen in house prices show little sign of abating. Demand in the housing market remains firm and mortgage servicing costs are relatively stable.”

House prices are 10.8 per cent higher than they were last year up at just over £286,000 and are now £47,568 up over the past two years.

Meanwhile, the motor industry has downgraded sales forecasts for the year by 9 per cent. New registrations crashed last month as a lack of new vehicles arriving from factories occurred, which was coupled with stories of inflation and fears of the cost-of-living crisis. It didn’t help that car-price inflation has been very strong.

According to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, fewer than 120,000 new cars were registered in April. This represented a year-on-year fall of nearly 16 per cent.

That prompted the industry body to cut its forecast for the year from 1.89 million vehicles to 1.72 million. While that number is marginally ahead of the result for 2021, it is at least 25 per cent lower than the average in recent years.