A decline in housing prices and home loans has improved the outlook of the housing market and fears of a new housing slump, according to new figures.

The figures from Nationwide show a reduction of 0.5% in the prices of houses in the UK during July, after the preceding months saw a slow decline in home prices, before remaining stable in June.

The average house price is only 6.6% higher than one year ago, a decline from 8.7% in June, and costs an average of £169,347 according to Nationwide’s figures.

The Bank of England has said that the number of defaults of home and business loans has fallen unexpectedly in the second quarter of the year.

The recent drop in loan defaults follows on from the trend for home loans that was present in 2009.

However, according to the Bank’s Credit Conditions Survey, the default rate is expected to remain at the current level in the third quarter of 2010, rather than drop again.

Homeowners in the North West and the West Midlands are the most likely in England to have their property repossessed, the government has suggested.

On the launch of a new advertising campaign to encourage those facing debt problems to seek advice on repossession and mortgage repayments, government statistics highlighted major cities including Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Hull as key repossession “hot-spots”.

The Ministry of Justice has issued a series of online guides and videos to offer advice to homeowners facing repossession.
The guides, found at www.direct.gov.uk, offers advice and guidance on the repossession process, right from the first arrears up to what homeowners can expect at a court hearing.

The advice has been released after the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) predicted that as many as 65,000 homes could be repossessed in 2009 as a result of mortgage arrears, fuelled largely by increasing unemployment.

Customers who are currently on super low tracker mortgages and paying close to 0% interest now face paying thousands of pounds a year in interest, as their mortgage deals come to an end.

Thousands of homeowners will face the decision of whether to remortgage their property, especially in light of the Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report which suggests that interest rates could remain low.