The decline in house and apartment prices throughout Australia is continuing to ease, the latest data suggests.

Releasing its latest report, CoreLogic says national dwelling values contracted by 0.5 percent during April to come in at $519,817.

Whilst prices are still falling, the pace of decline has slowed since values plummeted 1.1 percent in December last year.

Compared with the same time last year, values are down by 7.8 percent.

Leading the softening in decline are Sydney and Melbourne, where prices fell 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent respectively during April.

Compared with falls of 1.8 percent in Sydney and 1.5 percent in Melbourne as recently as December, the latest monthly declines for Australia’s two biggest capitals are more moderate in scale.

CoreLogic Research Director Tim Lawless says several indicators point to a subtle improvement in housing market conditions.

These include higher mortgage related valuations activity, improved housing finance data in February and the holding steady of auction clearance rates within the mid-50 percent range across significant auction markets.

“While none of these indicators could be described as strong, the current trend in the data implies that housing market conditions may have moved through the worst of the downturn,” Lawless said.