The latest figures from Nationwide have revealed that house prices fell again in December, despite signs in November that the market was stabilising.
There was further bad news on the property front as the Nationwide revealed its monthly price figures for December.
The housing market has been subjected to a number of broadsides, such as a lack of mortgage availability resulting from the credit crunch and people facing difficulty with mortgage repayments as the economy suffers. All these factors have led prices on a steady decline.
Nationwide reported that the average price of a house in the UK dropped by 2.5 percent last month, marking an annual fall of 15.9 percent. This was in stark contrast to November, when prices fell just 0.4 percent, leading some to speculate that the market was stabilising.
The average British house now costs £153,048 - roughly the same as in spring 2005, although £17,500 more than the price of five years ago.
However, the building society's chief economist Fionnuala Earley did offer a positive note, explaining that that the three-month on three-month rate, which "smoothes the volatility often seen in the monthly numbers", only recorded a fall of 4.2 percent in December, its slowest pace since May of last year.
But the current unpredictability in the market meant Nationwide refrained from making its usual predictions for the year ahead. "Conditions remain highly volatile going into 2009, making it more difficult than usual to arrive at a specific forecast for house prices," said Ms Earley. "In these unsettled times a forecast subject to frequent change could itself add to greater uncertainty."
