The latest monthly Nationwide review of house price has shown that house prices fell by 1.3 per cent in January, meaning a 16.6 per cent fall since last January. Nationwide now calculates the price of an average house in Britain is ?15,501.
The pace of the fall in house prices is still increasing, as they were down by 15.9 per cent over the year to December.
The latest Land Registry figures suggest a 13.5 per cent fall in the year, bringing their average house price down to ?158,946 ? around the same amount that properties were worth in October 2005.
The Land Registry figures tend to lag behind other house price estimates ? such as Nationwide?s ? as it is based on completion figures. It saw a 2 per cent fall in house prices in December in England & Wales.
The fall in house prices should be helping first-time buyers to come back to the market, but Nationwide senior economist Martin Gahbauer said that many first-time buyers remain excluded from the market because lenders are now demanding large deposits.
He added: ?Although affordability has improved significantly in recent months as house prices and mortgage rates have fallen, most affordability ratios are still relatively stretched compared to long-term norms.?
Average property values fell across the whole country for the year, but in December the North East saw prices stabilise and Wales actually saw an increase of 1.7 per cent.
In London prices fell by 2.3 per cent to an average price of ?307,071, but West Midlands saw the biggest fall ? of 3.6 per cent.
