House prices fell by 1.3% in 2011

Published by Julien Tremblin for 24dash.com in Housing

House prices in the UK have fallen by 1.3% in the last year, new figures by Halifax reveal.

The average price for a home in December 2011 was 160,063, down from 163,665 a year before.

On a monthly basis, house prices declined by 0.9% in December, following a 1% fall in November. There was a very mixed monthly picture during 2011 with six monthly falls, five increases and one month of unchanged prices.

The Halifax shows that despite a slight pick-up at the end of the year, the number of house sales has significantly dropped.  Total sales in the first 11 months of 2011 were 2.5% lower than in the same period of 2010.

"Whilst there was a modest fall overall in prices during 2011 with an annual decline of 1.3% in December, house prices held up well last year in the face of the difficult and deteriorating economic climate and substantial pressure on households' finances.

"If the UK can avoid recession, we expect broad stability in house prices in 2012. There is, however, considerable uncertainty regarding the prospects for the UK economy which will, to a large extent, depend on how events in the Eurozone unfold.

"In addition, the extent to which households choose to reduce their debts will also affect growth. As a result, the outlook for house prices is also uncertain."