House prices fell for the 14th month in a row during August with the cut in interest rates doing little to revive the market, a new survey has shown.
The average cost of a home in England and Wales fell by 0.1 per cent during the month, following July?s drop of 0.2 per cent, according to property website Hometrack.
The group said prices had now fallen by 3.7 per cent during the past 12 months to average #161,000, nearly #7,000 less than in June last year, and the market was showing no sign of imminent recovery.
Activity increased slightly during August, suggesting some confidence may have returned, but the number of new house-hunters continued to fall, and this, combined with a rise in the number of properties coming on to the market, meant supply continued to exceed demand.
John Wriglesworth, Hometrack?s housing economist, said: ?House prices have failed to respond to the recent interest rate cut, and continue their stagnating negative trend, which has now gone on for well over a year.
?While transactions have picked up a little this month, a further reduction in new buyers and a further increase in supply suggests no prospect of price rises in the near future.?
He said it was a buyer?s market with people generally securing discounts of well over six per cent of a property?s asking price, the equivalent of around #12,000 of savings on an average priced property.
Across England and Wales only three areas saw price rises during August, with Leicestershire leading the way at 0.8 per cent, followed by east London and the West Midlands, both at 0.1 per cent.
Among the other regions prices remained static in 21 counties and fell in 33 of them.
The worst price falls were in Avon, where they dropped by 0.6 per cent, while in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire they were 0.5 per cent lower, and in West Sussex and Surrey they fell by 0.4 per cent.
