According to the Times house prices rose for the third month in a row in July. Prices are said to now be higher than the beginning of the year. The average UK house price rose by 1.3% this month to £158,871. It is said they could be higher still by the end of this year. Average prices however are 6.2% lower than this time last year but it is a considerable improvement from last month where a 9.3% decline was registered from the same month in 2008. According to figures provided by Nationwide, February represented the lowest point with a 17.6% annual decline. Nationwide also commented that house prices had been very resilient considering the recession and unemployment; it could have been much worse. The building society did warn that the current good news for the property market might not be sustained. The reason for this is the shortage of house supply means that it has pushed prices up. This especially is the case for property investment at the moment as less people are selling their property because they want to wait and see which way the market is heading.