House prices fell 15.9% in 2008

6 January 2009

The mutual's latest house price survey also shows that in December house prices fell by 2.5%.

The data echoes that of Halifax's own house price survey last week which found a 16.2% year-on-year fall and a 2.2% decline in December alone.

Fionnuala Earley, chief economist at Nationwide, says on the plus side, house prices only fell by 4.2% over Q4, which is the slowest pace since May 2008.

But she says: "While house price falls are helping to improve affordability and the steep drop in interest rates will provide some further support, all of the typical affordability measures are still above their long-run averages.

"This suggests that prices have further to fall before significant numbers of buyers will be willing to return to the market."