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The Nationwide today announced that  the average house price in the UK  is now £169,316, thats nearly £15,000 less than it was this time last year in 2007.

There was a 1.7% fall in the value of the average house in the UK in July and  there were very few positives contained in the Nationwide report for the UK housing market. Fionnuala Earley , their chief economist points to encouraging signs within the swap market where rates have lowered allowing for fixed mortgage rates to reduce recently. Some mortgage lenders had previously expected the MPC to put interest rates up two more times this year, whereas now the view is that they will not increase at all, which is good news for mortgage borrowers.

Talking about forced sales Ms Earley says that ” estate agents are reporting up to 40% of transactions falling through and the average number of sales per surveyor is at its lowest ever level. This could be partly due to the availability of finance but the Bank of England Agent’s report suggests that this may also be due to the reluctance of sellers to accept low offers. While this does little for liquidity in the housing market, it does indicate that sellers are largely not in a position where they are forced to sell”

Some of the other key points from the report include,

First time buyers are down 41% from this time last year

22% of lenders expect less credit to be available in the next three months

Average house price 8.1% lower than a year ago

Average house prices almost £11,000 HIGHER than three years ago.