The price of the typical house increased by 0.5% in February, Nationwide said today. This followed January’s 0.4% increase in prices and extends the period over which the trend has been for relatively subdued but steady price growth to seven months.

Headlines	February 2005	January 2005
Monthly index (seasonally adjusted) Q1 '93 = 100	309.9	308.4
Monthly change (seasonally adjusted)	0.5%	0.4%
Annual change	10.2%	12.6%
Average price	£152,879	£151,757

Monthly house price inflation over the last three months has averaged 0.3% per month compared with the 1.7% per month over the same three-month period a year earlier. The price of the typical property now stands at £152,879; just over £14,000 or 10.2% higher than in February last year.

Alex Bannister, Nationwide's Group Economist, said: "Housing market activity, which had been slowing throughout the second half of last year, appears to have bottomed out. Following the lull towards the end of last year, homeowner and prospective buyer sentiment has stopped deteriorating and buyers may now start returning to the market."

"We expect that the number of house purchase mortgages approved in February will recover to at least 80,000 from the decade low approvals seen in January. Nevertheless, activity levels remain substantially below the peak of 132,000 cases per month reached at the end of 2003."

"The economic outlook remains benign with the economy expected to grow close to trend this year, with unemployment staying low. We expect that interest rates will rise once more, with the continued firmness of house prices making this more likely. Given this outlook, there are no obvious triggers on the horizon that might result in significant house price falls."

"House prices have already risen 0.9% so far this year. If this pace of increase persisted, prices would rise by just under 6% in the year to December; slightly above the 0-5% range we had expected. However, the likelihood remains that price growth will be muted with small rises in some months being offset by small falls in others. We still expect that the full year rise in prices to be nearer the bottom of the 0-5% range."