House prices "fall to 2004 level"

The average price of a UK home has fallen to levels not seen since August 2004, according to the Halifax.
Prices declined by 2.2% in December, to bring the average cost down to £159,896, the lender said.
For 2008 as a whole, prices fell 16.2%, the biggest annual decline since Halifax began keeping records in 1983.
The figures came as data from the Bank of England showed the number of mortgage approvals fell to 27,000 in November - at least a nine-year low.
This was the lowest figure since the series began in January 1999.
Getting a mortgage is harder for many because the requirements are stiffer than before. But I tink that for the rich people, this is a very good time to purchase a home, because prices are the lowest in a long time and the interest rates were just dropped a few days ago.

Now most commentators believe that prices will continue falling well into 2009, indeed maybe for the whole of the year.
"We will expect prices to continue to fall because of the economic conditions; you wouldn't expect the market to turnaround in those conditions", says the Nationwide's chief economist Fionnuala Earley, referring to the growing recession.

I think that in truth no-one knows when that will change and we will have crisis for a long time.

Iris Baño