Daily Mail: World News - House prices have fallen by nearly £5,000 since the beginning of May - the biggest one-month drop since 1991.The Nationwide Building Society said prices had dropped by 2.5 per cent - equivalent to £1,200 a week - since April to an average of £173,583.
The value of property has now declined for seven months in a row, drawing warnings that the market could fall by more than ten per cent both this year and next.
Crisis: House prices slid for the seventh successive month ¿ the longest consecutive period of decline since 1992
However, Bank of England policymaker David Blanchflower has warned that average prices could be a third lower by 2010.
In theory, this should be good news for firsttime buyers hoping to get a foot on the property ladder. However, a home loan drought is locking them out of the market.
Banks and building societies have slashed the number of mortgage deals available and put up interest rates on many of those that remain.
The Nationwide itself cut the value of home loans offered to buyers by 40 per cent in the last financial year.
A spokesman for Capital Economics said: ‘The sheer size of the drop in house prices, without the economy having yet slowed significantly, suggests that this housing market correction will be deep and prolonged…
