The property website Hometrack have reported that the average price of a UK house has fallen by 0.3% in the month of September. Their report shows that house prices fell in 5 of the 57 counties in England and Wales.

The only counties that escaped the falling prices were Teeside, Nottinghamshire, North Yorkshire, North Wales and South Lincolnshire. Even in these areas, price rises were minimal. In London, house prices fell by more than 1%.

As a result of these latest findings, Housetrack has revised its estimate for house price growth in the future. It now predicts that house prices will have risen by just 3% during the whole of 2004. This is considerably more pessimistic than the previous estimate of 5%.

This report is the latest of many which appear to show that the UK housing market is going into decline after many months of rising prices. The Bank Of England's policy of raising interest rates seems to be having an effect and the prices, which many economists thought were unsustainable, are beginning to fall. The big question now, of course, is how far the prices will fall...and for how long.

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