Monthly increase in house prices the first of over 1% for six years

House prices may still be almost 50% lower than at their peak in 2007, but last month saw the first rise of more than 1% in prices since Dec 2006.

According to the CSO’s residential property price index, house values fell 5.7% in the year to November. However, the decline in prices appeared to be slowing. In the 12 months to October, the decline had been 8.1% and in the year to Nov 2011, prices had fallen by 15.6%.

Furthermore, between October and November of this year, prices across the country increased by 1.1% — they had dropped by 0.6% between September and October.