Hometrack: House prices fall 17th month in a row

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by Kay Murchie

Housing intelligence company Hometrack has today revealed that house prices in England and Wales fell for the 17th month in a row during February.

The continued fall means house prices have lost a further 0.8% of their value, leaving the average price of a property at £157,000, according to the company.

The company now puts house prices at 10% lower than a year ago - the largest annual fall since the company began the series over eight years ago.

The company’s survey, which is based on estate agents’ and surveyors’ estimates of selling prices, differs to that from the Nationwide, who recently reported an annual fall of 17.6%, while the Land Registry reported that house prices fell annually by 15.1%.

Meanwhile, despite fears of unemployment and a lack of mortgage finance, Hometrack reported a 36% increase in the number of sales, a 17% rise in buyers registering with estate agents and said there were 6.7% more new homes up for sale.

However Richard Donnell of Hometrack cautions that “the increase in market activity is off a very low base and falls well short of what could be classified as green shoots of recovery.”