HOUSE prices dropped by 1.5 per cent in Wyre Forest in October, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 12.2% annual growth.

The average Wyre Forest house price in October was £225,025, Land Registry figures show – a 1.5% decrease on September.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across West Midlands, where prices decreased 3.3%, but Wyre Forest underperformed compared to the 1.1% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Wyre Forest rose by £24,000 – putting the area 11th among West Midlands’s 30 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Malvern Hills, where property prices increased on average by 19.9%, to £328,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Worcester gained just 1.9% in value, giving an average price of £231,000.