NATIONAL HOUSE prices have on average fallen by a quarter since February 2007 and are now at Christmas 2003 levels, according to the latest Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index.

The average price for a house fell by a further 1 per cent in September to €232,584, a decline of 25.2 per cent since early 2007 when the average cost of a house reached a peak of €311,078.

In the first nine months of 2009 alone house prices fell by €30,000 or 11.1 per cent, compared to a 7 per cent decline for the same period a year earlier.

At the beginning of this year the average price for a house was €261,573.

National prices were down by 13.1 per cent in the year to the end of September 2009, according to the latest index.

“While the rate of decline is relatively stable over the past few months, there is significant differences in different parts of the country, with Dublin prices falling much faster due to the significant stock of unused property,” said Niall O’Grady, general manager at Permanent TSB.

In Dublin, house prices fell by 2.1 per cent in September to €300,466 compared to €351, 096 at the end of 2008. The drop was less pronounced outside the capital, where prices fell by 1.3 per cent to €201,853 as against €223,984 last December.

For the first nine months of 2009 prices in Dublin have fallen by 14.4 per cent, while outside the capital average prices declined 9.9 per cent.

Over the year to the end of September, prices were down 18 per cent and 12.1 per cent respectively.

The Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index usually contains figures for new and existing houses, and for prices paid by first-time buyers, but this data was not provided for September because the sample sizes in these categories were so small.