Telford is bucking the house price slump with prices rising by 0.4 per cent during February, new figures have revealed.

Although the price of homes in Shropshire fell by 0.6 per cent in the last month, they are still 2.4 per cent higher than this time last year.

The figures were revealed following yesterday’s report from the Land Registry which showed house prices fell by 0.3 per cent nationally during February as the property market suffered a slowdown following the end of the stamp duty holiday.

The slide left the average home in England and Wales costing £164,455, with the average home across Shropshire and Mid Wales falling below this at £149,274.

The average price of a ho me in the Shropshire Council area fell from £163,159 in January to £162,197 last month. In Powys, the average dropped from £157,620 to £155,687.

But in Telford, the average house price rose from £129,367 in January to £129,938 last month, an increase of 0.4 per cent and up 0.1 per cent on prices in February 2009.

AThe average for a detach ed home in Shropshire has dropped by about £1,500 to £247,015 but in Telford it has gone up from £204,888 to £205,793.

Other figures from the Land Registry showed semi-detached homes in Telford were selling for an average of £102,753, up from £102,301 in January and terraced homes have also risen in price from £81,207 to £81,566.

In Powys, the average price of a semi-detached home has dropped by about £2,000 in the last month to £125,737 and a terraced home has fallen by the same amount to £100,861.

The most expensive ho- mes are in Shropshire, where a semi-detached house has fallen in price from £141,925 to £141,088 and a terraced house from £122,452 in January to £121,729.

The drop is likely to have been caused by the end of the Government’s stamp duty holiday in December.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist IHS Global Insight, said: “The Land Registry data add to the evidence that house prices and activity have faltered early in 2010.

“We suspect that house prices will be erratic and prone to corrections in 2010.”