House prices fall 2.9 percent in Nov

LONDON (Reuters) - The housing market in England and Wales strengthened modestly in November, with the smallest year-on-year drop in house prices since May 2008, a survey by property data company Hometrack showed on Monday.

House prices rose 0.2 percent from last month on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the fourth consecutive monthly rise, causing the annual decline in house prices to ease to 2.9 percent from October's 4.2 percent.

The average percentage of asking price achieved by sellers rose to 93.2 percent from 92.9 percent, its highest since March 2008, and the average time properties took to sell remained steady at an 18-month low of 8.4 weeks.

However, the number of new buyers grew by just 0.1 percent in November versus 1.2 percent in October -- something which Hometrack said might not just be due to a seasonal pre-Christmas dip and pointed to limits on further house price rises.

"Further price rises could well result in an increase in the time to sell as stronger pricing meets greater resistance from would-be buyers whose numbers are also growing more slowly," said Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research.

Moreover, the price rises were heavily concentrated in London and south-eastern England, which reported price rises in 79 percent and 57 percent of post code areas compared to just 37 percent on average nationally.

"The stark reality is that there are large swathes of the country where prices have remained unchanged or have seen continued price falls," Donnell said.

House prices rose in just 6 percent of post code areas in northern England, the most depressed region.

Hometrack's survey was based on responses from 1,804 estate agents and surveyors.

(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Chris Pizzey)