The average Edinburgh house price fell by 4.1% in the first three months of 2011 according to the latest statistics from the official government statistician Registers of Scotland.
With UK inflation running at 4-5% it means that in real terms house prices have fallen even further.
The average Edinburgh house price at the end of March stood at £203,278, down from £211,948 for the same time frame last year.
Edinburgh home sales were down 12.1% on the previous year (from 1,459 to 1,283) and the value of total sales was down 15.7% from £309 million to £261 million.
In the previous quarter, RoS reported that East Dumbartonshire had overtaken Edinburgh as the most expensive area for buying a home. This quarter, Edinburgh was the only local authority area with house prices above £200,000. However, Scotland as a whole saw only a slight fall of 1.1% for average house prices.
While the property market may be fragile, most people carrying a mortgage are reaping the benefit of a historically low Bank of England interest rate of 0.5% for the last two years.
Due to the Scottish Parliamentry Election tomorrow RoS did not publish a commentary on the statistics, saying:
"There is no accompanying commentary news release with this quarter’s official property statistics. As a government body RoS is adhering to the publishing guidance for the election period which runs until 5 May 2011."
Average (mean) Residential Property Price (Jan-Mar)
Edinburgh
2010: £211,948
2011: £203,278
Change: down 4.1%
Scotland
2010: £147,866
2011: £146,253
Change: down 1.1%
Volume of Residential Property Sales (Jan-Mar)
Edinburgh
2010: 1,459
2011: 1,283
Change down 12.1%
Scotland
2010: 14,664
2011: 12,800
Change: down 12.7%
Value of Residential Property Sales (Jan-Mar)
Edinburgh
2010: £309,231,840
2011: £260,806,098
Change: down 15.7%
Scotland
2010: £2,168,303,708
2011: £1,872,044,215
Change: down 13.7%
Source: RoS