THE average price of a house dipped below €200,000 for the first time since 2002, new figures reveal.

A buyer of a house can now expect to pay €190,698, a national house price level not seen for eight years.

House prices peaked at €311,000 three years ago.

But since then they have continued to fall and are now down 36pc from their peak at the start of 2007.

Prices fell back by 1.3pc in July, August and September, according to the Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index.

The fall of 1.3pc in prices at the end of the summer was lower than previous quarters, but experts said it was too early to conclude that prices are bottoming out.

This was because few sales had been concluded.

General manager with Permanent TSB Niall O'Grady said: "This is the second successive quarter indicating the pace of decline in house prices is easing.

"However, as the market remains very quiet, it may be premature to conclude that we have reached the bottom of the cycle just yet." The reduction in average national house prices in the first nine months of this year was 7.6pc.

This compares with a fall of 11.7pc in the first nine months of last year.

Dublin house prices fell by 1.2pc in the July to September period. This was slower than the 3.5pc drop in the April to June period this year.

The reduction in the first nine months of 2010 was 14.6pc, and compares with a fall of 17pc in the same period in 2009.

The average price for a Dublin house in September was €238,986, compared with €242,000 in the April to June period.

House prices outside Dublin fell by 1.2pc in the third quarter of this year.

The Permanent TSB house price index is now produced every three months instead of monthly.

It is based on the agreed sale price and is calculated using data from mortgage drawdowns.

This means the information on prices can be based on sale prices agreed up to three months previously.