uk house prices in december dropped for a fourth consecutive month the longest stretch since the 2008 financial crisis lender nationwide reported on friday the monthly drop was just 01 compared to the 14 decline in november and 09 in october still prices are now 25 below their august peak annual house price growth in december fell sharply to 28 from 44 in november average house prices dropped by 01 monthonmonth – “a much smaller decline” than prior months said the average house in the uk was priced at £262068 316000 during december down by just over £1700 compared with november “while financial market conditions have settled mortgage rates are taking longer to normalize and activity in the housing market has shown few signs of recovery” said robert gardner nationwide’s chief economist “it will be hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term as economic headwinds strengthen with real earnings set to fall further and the labour market widely projected to weaken as the economy shrinks” gardner added that he wouldn’t be surprised if potential house buyers waited until the new year to see how mortgage rates evolve given longterm interest rates are heading back to the levels seen before the minibudget in september “longerterm interest rates which underpin mortgage pricing have returned towards the levels prevailing before the minibudget” he said the yield on the 10year gilt tmbmkgb10y was 370 on friday compared to a peak of 464 “if sustained this should feed through to mortgage rates and help improve the affordability position for potential buyers as will solid rates of income growth especially if combined with weak or negative house price growth” mortgage rates give us homebuyers some holiday relief falling for sixth week in a row