UK house prices fell by 0.40% this month, according to figures released by the Nationwide. This has partly reversed the rise that was seen last month. The Nationwide’s figures showed that the rate at which house prices are declining has slowed, however the average UK house has seen a 15% reduction in value since this time last year. Land registry figures showed that house prices fell by 3.1% in the February to April period, which was less of a decline than the 4.1% announced a month ago, for the period January to March. The average price for a house in the UK is now just under £152,000.

The rate at which property values are declining varies depending on which part of the country that you live in. In March, property prices in the West Midlands area fell by around 2%, whilst property values in the North East increased by 1.8% over the same period of time.

With more people becoming unemployed or struggling to make repayments on mortgages, credit card debt and other loans, it is understandable that there has been a sharp fall in demand for property. Since the onset of the credit crunch, there has been an increase in the number of people in financial difficulty, and in need of some form of debt consolidation. Whilst the numbers of consumers applying for mortgages has declined, the number of people needing IVA advice or other debt solutions has increased.

The Nationwide are hoping to see a turnaround in the housing market in the near future and were enthusiastic about some of the announcements made by Alistair Darling in his latest budget. It came as a surprise to many people when the Nationwide announced that average property prices had actually increased, in March, by 0.90%. They did urge that people did not get too excited about the increase in March, saying that it could just be a blip, and that it did not mean that the property market had turned around.