House prices fall again

House prices fell 2.3 per cent in February and by 17.7 per cent in the three months to February compared with a year earlier, the Halifax house price survey showed today.

That took the average price of a home to £160,327, the mortgage lender said.

February's monthly decline more than wiped out January's increase of two per cent and was slightly worse than analysts' forecasts for a fall of two per cent.

"Continuing pressures on incomes, rising unemployment and the negative impact of the dislocation of the financial markets on the availability of mortgage finance are, however, likely to mean that 2009 will be another difficult year for the housing market," said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.