General (main property discussion here) - US Interest rates up 0.25%

Still negative in real terms, but trending upwards.

UK inflation measures rumoured to include house prices from 2006 (FT Weds), with obvious impact on interest rate policy. Irony is house prices may well have flattened by then anyway!

Will,

I tend to lock in all my mortgages on fixed rates, so not so concerned in short term. Mind you, it never seems to be the actual rate that counts, just the expectation of future moves which determines how the mortgage companies set up their fixed rates. Not sure how they do this technically, but I've been reading that the insiders in the city have priced in low interest rates now for the next few years, and if banks follow these so-called specialists, I think we'll be alright for a time.

Floating repayment rates is one risk I take out of the equation!

Phil

With regard to your second point, this is interesting. Inflation measures are based around basket of goods, which are supposed to be essential commodtites I think. Some sort of housing cost must be essential, but by the sounds of it they've skirted round the whole issue. Maybe they've been including rents, but these haven't seen the same growth in my experience (yields decreasing). Does anyone have data for rental growth vs house prices? Be interesting to compare the two.

Phil