Nationwide: Sluggish start sets tone for 2011

Prices fell 0.1% in January - and 1.1% compared with the same month last year - leaving the average house now worth just over £161,000. The three-month-on-three-month change, considered a better measure of the underlying trend, fell 0.5%. Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, says: "January's data does little to alter the picture of a sluggish market that has been evident since the summer. "The outlook is still highly uncertain, but the most likely outcome is that the pattern of low transaction levels and prices moving sideways or modestly lower will continue through 2011....