House Prices Have Fallen Slightly Says Land Registry

House prices fell by 0.2% in the May, the influential House Price Index published by the Land Registry shows. Prices were still 8.2% higher than in May 2009, however.

The Land Registry has just published its House Price Index which show that home values had their first monthly fall since April 2009, bringing the price of the average house price to £165,314.

Houses in East Midlands suffered the biggest falls in May, with values slipping by 3.6%, the Land Registry figures show.

On an annual basis, however, house prices have risen over all regions of England and Wales over the last twelve months with London showing the strongest growth at 14.2% and the slowest increases occurring in the North East at just 1.8%.

The slow down in the house price inflation seen in recent months is probably due to uncertainties caused by the general election, which was held in May, and subsequent worries about austeritry measures to be imposed by the coalition government, although the impact of the emergency budget will be reported in the June and July House Price indices.