For those in Rented accommodation – that’s the place to stay for now. Bottom fishing is a well known technique for speculators in shares, & the only way to recognise the bottom of a market is to wait until it has recovered. The latest figures give a clear message.

House prices in the UK fell for the twelfth consecutive month in October. The price of a typical house is now 14.6% lower than at this time last year, the peak of the market. The typical house price fell by 1.4% in October, around the same rate as the average monthly fall of 1.3% over the last year, but lower than the monthly falls recorded in each of the previous three months

Prices are falling, & if you look at prices against their long term mean there is further to go.

The report gives a very clear indication as to the future direction of house prices. Currently there is an excess of properties available, markets are driven by supply & demand, prices will continue to fall until the excess of properties has been mopped up. The view of the Nationwide is that house prices will fall by a total of 25 per cent and there might be no bounce-back until 2010.

That’s a long time to wait. We are only halfway there.