House prices, as measured by the House Price Index (HPI), fell by 2.2% in the euro area and by 1.3% in the EU in the second quarter of 2013 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, according to data published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Compared with the first quarter of 2013, house prices rose by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU in the second quarter of 2013.

House price developments in the EU Member States

Among the EU Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the second quarter of 2013 were recorded in Latvia (+8.8%), Estonia (+8.1%) and Luxembourg (+5.1%), and the largest falls in Croatia (-19.7%), Spain (-10.6%) and the Netherlands (-7.5%).

The highest quarterly increases in the second quarter of 2013 were recorded in Latvia (+5.1%), Estonia (+3.7%) and Denmark (+3.1%), and the largest falls in Croatia (-6.5%), the Netherlands (-2.0%) and Hungary (-0.9%).