House prices in England and Wales have edged lower this month to show their biggest annual fall since October 2009, a monthly survey from property data company Hometrack showed on Monday. Average house prices dropped by 0.1% in June, continuing a pattern of modest falls so far this year and taking the year-on-year decline to 3.9%. Other house price surveys have shown similar price falls over the past 12 months. Prices dropped by around 20% during the financial crisis, but partly recovered in early 2010. Hometrack's director of research, Richard Donnell, said that the property market had been less weak so far this year than he had expected. House prices are under pressure from slow wage growth and lenders' preference for much higher mortgage deposits than before the financial crisis. Hometrack's data is based on a monthly survey of estate agents and surveyors, asking for average achievable prices for different categories of property