The average cost of a home dropped 1.4% during the month to stand at £160,395, the lowest level since July 2009, according to the latest Halifax house price index.

The latest slide led to property values being 3.7% lower during the three months to the end of April than during the same three months of the previous year - the biggest annual decline since October 2009.

Halifax blamed the slide on weak consumer confidence in the face of economic uncertainty, which it said was constraining demand, putting downward pressure on prices.

Property values are now just 4% above the low they hit

The latest Land Registry figures provided a flurry of headlines and plenty for the house buyer or house seller to consider.

The headline-grabbing figure was a 2.3 per cent drop in the past year of property values throughout England and Wales – only London seeing a slight increase.

The North East saw the greatest annual price fall (-9.3 per cent) but the North West saw a slight month on month rise of 0.8 per cent.

Second biggest annual drop in house prices was Wales, down 7.2 per cent to give an average house price of £115,998. Walesonline reported upbeat comments from estate agents who

The Bank of England has voted to hold interest rates at 0.5% against a backdrop of weak UK growth figures and a surprise dip in inflation.

Many had expected this to be the month when rates finally began to rise, but data released last month showed GDP had increased by just 0.5% in the first quarter of 2011, far lower than the near 1% figure many had been hoping for.

Such underwhelming growth was only enough to counter the shock 0.5% decline witnessed in the previous quarter, and raised questions about whether the economy could handle the impact of a rate hike at this point.

Today's

House prices remained unchanged during April as growing demand and rising sales helped to provide some support for the market, research by property intelligence group, Hometrack, has indicated.

The stabilisation followed eight consecutive months of price falls, which have left the average home in England and Wales costing £153,100; although Hometrack warned that it expects prices to come under further pressure during the second half of the year as consumer confidence weakens.

The number of people looking to buy a home has increased by 22% during the first four months of the year, while

A quick reminder that after the long weekend, a number of property auctions are taking place across the UK over the next fortnight.  If you're searching for property to buy in Lancashire, London, Leeds, Scotland and the Home Counties, then use our search facility as soon as possible as these property auctions are taking place this week.  Next week's auctions focus on East England, East Midlands and London (again).

Remember that auctions take place throughout the year so keep checking back as we're uploading new properties into our UK Auction List database on a weekly, sometimes daily

Another price increase coming into effect today is further bad news of families who heavily rely on landlines for both calls and broadband.

BT customers will see their home phone bills rise again as line rental charges creep up for the third time in 12 months.

As well as the recent 9% increases on BT call rates, customers have also been subject to stealth hikes on the cost of line rental.

Last year, BT line rental cost £11.54 a month. However, this has risen by nearly £2 over the course of one year, taking the cost of a landline up to £13.90 per month from today.

Furthermore, there

The royal festivities are over and the long weekend begins... a perfect time to check out all the new properties we have in our database! There are over a thousand current properties for auction, and over 200 lots still available from the auctions that have taken place this past month.

Become a member today and receive access to full property details for each lot in our database, auction venue info and auctioneer contact details, streetview, google map, local statistics, recently sold property information, plus access to our comprehensive Auctioneer Directory and Auction Calendar.  It

One in five households will rent their house or flat from a private landlord in five years, up from 16% now, while the number of owner-occupiers may fall by more than 1m, experts predicted at The Sunday Times housing market roundtable last week.

This rise in renters could provide opportunities for cash-rich buy-to-let investors looking for long-term income growth, although they should not expect a return to strong capital gains any time soon.

James Charles reports on their findings and predictions for the housing market  http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/money/mortgage_and

Mortgage lenders are returning to buy-to-lets amid evidence that rental yields have started to climb above 6%.

James Charles reported in the Sunday Times this week that typical yields have started to climb above 6% as landlords benefit from rising rents and falling or stagnant prices.

Analysis by Find A Property compared regional yields with the most popular types of buy-to-let properties and found that three-bedroom houses in Scotland produced an average gross yield of 6.5% last month, while one-bedroom flats earned a yield of 6% in London and 6.4% in the West Midlands.

However, not

Consumers could face a new round of energy price rises as early as next month, experts are warning.

As the "big six" energy suppliers axe their cheapest deals in the face of soaring wholesale gas prices, domestic fuel prices are expected to rise by 15% this year. This would add £172.50 to the typical household energy bill of £1,150 a year.

Suppliers are blaming earlier than expected price rises on pressure caused by the political crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, the Japenese nuclear catastrophe and surging demand from the booming Chinese and Indian economies.

This year