House prices nationwide fell by 9.1% last year, compared to 7.3% in 2007. This is according to the 2008 house price index from Permanent TSB and the Economic and Social Research Institute.
The average price of a house for first time buyers fell by 14% in 2008, the house price index shows.
After a decade of exceptional growth, Permanent TSB and the ESRI say that house prices have entered a period of serious retrenchment.
House prices in 2009 are expected to fall by a further 10%, the ESRI predicts. It says the market will not recover until the economic situation significantly improves, and that is unlikely to happen until 2010, according to the ESRI's David Duffy.
Permanent TSB says house prices are now where they were in the middle of 2005.
The biggest fall in any housing category was in Dublin's commuter belt, with house prices in Wicklow, Kildare, Meath and Louth falling by almost 17%.
Outside Dublin prices fell by just over 10%, while Dublin house prices fell by 11.7%.
Nationally prices fell by just over 9%, but given lower inflation figures in 2008, the real price decline was 13.2%.
The average price paid for a house at the end of last year was €261,573. This compares to average prices of €287,887 at the end of 2007 and €310,632 at the end of 2006.
Niall O'Grady of Permanent TSB says the last two years have seen a rate of decline as high as 17%. He says that trend is likely to continue for at least the remainder of this year.
Note: The methodology used by the ESRI to analyse the figures is called hedonic regression. The ESRI independently assesses different pools, instead of just taking the averages of the headline figures. This means that occasionally the average decline or increase in the house price index does not seem to be average, based on the broken down figures.
But this method of analysis is the international norm for analysing housing indices.
