House prices tumble for initial time in 10 months

House prices fell for the initial time in 10 months during Feb

House prices have depressed for the initial time in ten months, raising fears that the "mini-boom" is over, the Nationwide warned yesterday.

In February, the normal cost of a residence forsaken by 1 per cent, the initial tumble given Apr last year.

The total from Britain"s greatest construction multitude will fuel drawn out concerns that prices are about to plunge.

Nationwide"s arch economist Martin Gahbauer pronounced February"s tumble might be a "temporary blip", but could be "the begin of a new trend".

The new opening of the housing marketplace - the normal cost rising by 14,000 given last open - has been utterly "out of kilter" with the mercantile downturn, he said.

He expects prices will be prosaic this year, nonetheless alternative experts, such as the consultancy Capital Economics, envision a far crook tumble of up to 10 per cent.

For millions of homeowners, new total display that residence prices have been rising are at contingency with their own experience.

This is since the "mini-boom", that saw prices climb for 9 uninterrupted months, has been fuelled by a bang in the South, but a unemployment in the North.

Separate figures, published yesterday by the Land Registry, show the cove in between Britain"s twospeed housing market.

Over the past year, prices have rocketed 10.5 per cent in London, 8.5 per cent in the South-East and 6.6 per cent in the South-West.

But in the North they are down 3.4 per cent in the North East, down 2.2 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber and down 1.1 per cent in the North West.

In London - where prices are some-more costly than anywhere else - they are 336,212, only five per cent next their rise of 355,097 in Jan 2008.

Richard Donnell, executive of investigate at the skill report organisation Hometrack, said: "Our ultimate total show prices have been rising in only 7 per cent of postcodes - these mostly cramped to southern England."

The Nationwide"s total show the normal cost of a home is 161,320.