The Box Hill South median house price jumped 18 per cent from $675,000 in September to $825,000 in December.

In contrast, figures released by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria last week show that prices in Bulleen, Donvale and Burwood all dipped during the last three months of 2011.

REIV chief executive Enzo Raimondo said overall sale numbers were significantly lower than at the same time the previous year.

The median house price in Bulleen fell 16 per cent, from $745,000 in September to $625,000 in December, while Donvale’s median dipped

8 per cent from $735,000 to $675,000.

Burwood fell from $770,000 to $677,000 over the same period.

Doncaster East’s median was up 2 per cent from $727,500 to $741,944 in December, while Doncaster dropped almost 5 per cent from $735,000 to $700,000 at year’s end.

Mitcham prices fell more than 2 per cent from $593,500 to $579,000.

Barry Plant, director of Barry Plant Real Estate, said median house price figures from the last quarter were tough to judge as clearance rates were low. He said current medians were not necessarily true indicators of suburb values.

Mr Plant said he expected sale numbers to grow throughout 2012 given there was plenty of stock on the market and there had been two interest rate decreases before Christmas.

‘‘We’ve got more stock on the books in our Manningham office than we have had in 25 years,’’ he said.

The median house price for metropolitan Melbourne edged almost 2 per cent higher in the December quarter, up from $540,000 to $550,000.

Mr Raimondo said the REIV’S December quarter figures indicated increased stability compared with the previous period when Melbourne’s median house price dropped from $567,500 to $540,000 between June and September.

The REIV did not expect significant change during the March quarter, traditionally a quiet time of year for property sales.