House prices in England and Wales fell for the 11th month in a row during August as the property market downturn continued, figures showed.
The average home lost 0.9% of its value during the month, a slight moderation from the fall of 1.2% recorded during July, according to housing information group Hometrack.
But annual house price inflation continued its downward trend, dropping to minus 5.3%, the lowest level recorded since the index began in 2001 and compared with annual falls of 4.4% in July.
Nearly every market indicator worsened during the month, with the number of new buyers registering with agents falling by a further 5.3%, while the average length of time a home takes to sell increased to 11.3 weeks.
But the asking price sellers are achieving stabilised at just under 91%, although it still remains well down on the 95.7% being achieved in the spring of 2007.
Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research, said: "When the market turns it can take as long as 24 to 36 months for prices to reach realistic levels and we are now well into this process. We may well start to see a moderation in the rate of monthly price falls, however, with ever growing uncertainty among households over the broader economic outlook the current re-pricing of housing still has some way to run."
He added that while the number of buyers registering continued to fall during the month, a small but growing proportion of agents were reporting improved signs of buyer interest on the back of lower prices and a modest reduction in the cost of mortgages.
He said this trend could become more evident over the autumn as sellers continued to move towards more realistic levels of pricing.
The number of homes being put up for sale continued to slowdown during the month, with supply reducing by 0.7%.
Overall, house prices fell in 58.9% of postcode districts in August, to leave the average home in England and Wales costing £167,000.
