HOUSE prices are falling at their fastest pace in at least a quarter of a century and there are just half the number of job advertisements as a year ago. But a Reserve Bank board meeting in Sydney today is expected to conclude that another interest rate cut is not needed.

A survey of detached house prices by the Bureau of Statistics released yesterday found prices fell 6.7 per cent across Australia's eight capital cities over the year ended March - the biggest fall in the survey's 23-year history.

Sydney suffered the second largest annual price fall of 7.3 per cent, second only to Perth, where the abrupt end of the commodities boom dragged house values down 10.1 per cent.

The bureau's results jar with two other private sector surveys which had suggested house prices began to plateau earlier this year, supported by the boosted incentives for first-home buyers. By contrast, the bureau's survey suggested house prices sank another 2.2 per cent in the first three months of this year.

It is possible that because the bureau's survey does not include semi-detached homes and apartments, only detached homes, it does not fully capture this first-home buyer effect.