Hometrack: Price change by county

Its survey is the latest to suggest that the housing market is running out of steam.

Hometrack said prices fell 0.1% in May, following a fall of 0.1% in April and no growth in March.

Last year in May, prices rose by 2.6%.

The company said the latest figures showed that the housing boom was at an end.

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Earlier this month the Bank of England warned that house price growth could slow more quickly than expected and grind to a complete halt within a year.

But Hometrack's housing economist John Wriglesworth said: "While the stagnation is likely to persist over the next few months, there are clear signs that the market is bottoming out."

He said that with the war in Iraq over, there were also signs of people returning to the market and that would help to support prices during the second half of the year.

He predicted that prices would rise by 4% this year - a more pessimistic assessment than the forecasts from Nationwide and Halifax for 9-10% growth.

At one point last year, annual house price inflation reached 30%.

Worsening prospects

The slowdown in prices in May was particularly marked in south east England, led by Surrey where prices dropped 0.7%. Overall, price falls were reported for 24 counties.

There were rises in some areas, such as Staffordshire where prices increased by 0.5%.

Hometrack said the North-South divide continued, with price rises almost exclusively in the North and falls in the South.

But it added that prospects in the North were worsening with price rises slowing and many counties reporting no change during the past four weeks.

Hometrack: Price change by county