HOUSE prices in York have leapt by more than 60 per cent in the past decade - bucking the trend of the region as a whole.

But average prices in the city are still not as high as North Yorkshire towns such as Harrogate, Richmond, Thirsk and Northallerton, or Wetherby in West Yorkshire.

The Halifax, the UK's largest mortgage lender, has examined the movement in house prices in 720 towns across the UK over the last ten years, including 55 towns in Yorkshire and the Humber.

It found that house prices in Yorkshire and the Humber as a whole have increased by 36 per cent over the past ten years, compared to the UK average of 75 per cent.

Bucking that trend was York, which saw its average house price leap by 64 per cent, from £67,843 in 1991 to £111,030 in 2001.

But Harrogate faired even better, with house prices soaring 87 per cent from £77,324 in 1991 to £140,021 in 2001.

Wetherby has replaced Ilkley in West Yorkshire as the most expensive town in the region with an average house price of almost £159,000. Prices there have risen 56 per cent from £102,031 in 1991.

In Richmond prices have risen 55 per cent to £111,956, in Thirsk they are up 52 per cent to £115,639, and in Northallerton they are up 45 per cent to £112, 809.

Selby saw a jump of 56 per cent from £56,104 in 1991 to £87,306 in 2001, and in Malton the average house price rose 36 per cent in the decade, the average for the region, from £69,658 to £94,648.

But Scarborough saw house prices rise by just 20 per cent over the decade from £62,174 in 1991 to £74,671 last year.

Martin Ellis, Halifax Group Economist, said: "While house prices in the Yorkshire and the Humber as a whole have recorded a 36 per cent increase during the past ten years, this masks a huge variation across the region.

"At one end of the spectrum, house prices in Otley have risen by 87 per cent, comfortably outstripping both the regional and national average increases over the period.

"At the other end of the spectrum, prices in Cottingham have fallen by five per cent. The overall increase in house prices in many of the region's towns over the last ten years demonstrates that residential property is a very good long-term investment, notwithstanding the falls in prices in the early 1990s."

Updated: 09:10 Tuesday, February 26, 2002