The average price of a home rose 1.2pc to £154,016 this month, figures from the building society showed today. The rise – only the second in the past 12 months – leaves house prices 11.3pc lower than they were a year ago.

The figures provide some evidence that the sustained declines seen in the market since late 2007 are easing. The Bank of England and the Government have introduced a blitz of measures to try to revive the once-booming market.

Martin Gahbauer, the chief economist at Nationwide, cautioned that “although the short-term trend in house prices has clearly improved from where it was at the beginning of the year, it is still too early to say that the market is turning definitely.”

Although the economy has emerged from the free fall triggered by the autumn’s banking crisis, economists argue that rising unemployment will push any recovery from recession into next year.

“We still believe that house prices still have some way to fall, although we do expect the rate of decline to moderate over the coming months,” said Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight. (Via Telegraph)

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