The latest index from Permanent TSB and the ESRI has shown that house prices fell by almost 2% last month.This brings prices back to levels not seen since the summer months in 2004.
It means that prices nationally have fallen by almost 5% in the first four months of this year.
The average price paid for a house nationally in April 2009 was €248,640, compared with €261,573 in December and a peak of €311,078 in February 2007.
Houses in the first-time buyer category are falling at the fastest rate, down 7.9% already this year.
Niall O’Grady of Permanent TSB said: ‘This is the fastest rate of decline in national prices that we have seen to date since the index started in 1996.
‘The particularly dramatic reduction in prices for first-time buyers reflects their reluctance to buy in a market that is still declining and where unsold properties are being reduced further’
