For those who may have held lingering hopes of a lift in the housing market after the various interventions by the Government and the Bank of England of late will be disappointed by the message coming from the latest Rightmove figures.

The November data suggests that increasingly desperate sellers are dropping their asking prices further and further in a bid to win sales as property transactions dwindle.

Asking prices dropped 2.9% in November to a level 7.1% below last year. And this could be the prelude to further falls through the winter when sales typically fall.

With selling prices tending towards a figure 10% or more below the asking price, this data adds further weight to the view that house prices have still to fall significantly further.

The figures for London suggest asking prices have fallen less dramatically. The Rightmove data points to a fall of 5.4% over the year. But Rightmove is being told by estate agents that sales prices are 20% down from peak, suggesting very deep discounts from asking price.

With the news of ever more job cuts filling the press and TV and radio bulletins it is likely that buyers will be increasingly cautious while the numbers of forced sellers will rise. This almost certainly will put greater downward pressure on prices and price expectations.

The latest forecast by property experts Savills is for house prices to drop 16% this year and a further 11% next before growth returns in 2010. And they do not expect house prices to have returned to the peak of last year until well after 2013.