House prices stayed level in January although the annual rate of growth continued to fall, Britain's biggest mortgage lender says.
The average cost of a home in the UK was unchanged during the month at £197,244, said the Halifax.
But annual house price inflation fell to 4.5% for the year to the end of January to its lowest figure since November 2005, down on the previous month's figure of 5.2%.
The latest figures follow a rise in house prices in December, but the cost of property was down during each of the previous three months.
Halifax said prices for the three months to the end of January were 1% lower than in the previous quarter - the third consecutive fall on this basis.
The group added that it did not think the more positive data seen during the previous two months was a sign that the current housing market slowdown was bottoming out.
But Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said the figures offered "some reassurance" that the market was not heading for a long, sustained fall in prices.
"We expect sound economic fundamentals and lower interest rates to support house prices," he said.
The group expects 2008 to be a difficult year for the housing market, and predicts house prices will end the year at the same level as they started it, he added.
Halifax said there were continuing signs of weakness in activity, with the number of mortgages approved for people buying a house falling by more than a third during the final quarter of 2007.
But, it said, there were signs that the downturn in activity may be stabilising, with the rate at which inquiries from new buyers were declining, slowing recently.
Halifax's figures are in line with those reported by Nationwide Building Society, which showed house prices edged ahead by just 0.1% during January.
