The reduction in interest rates has begun to affect the market place. This week we have had more enquiries about surveys than we had in the previous month. This may be those people who were thinking of purchasing but were waiting for the prices to fall. Whilst it is always difficult to generalise about the market and even more difficult to guess what the market is likely to do in the future, there is a feeling that the rate of fall in house prices has slowed down.

Those purchasers who were ready to buy, but were nervous that their house would lose value immediately, are therefore more willing to take the risk and are starting to return to the market. There is a feeling that house prices may still fall during 2009, however if you can buy well in this market, minor improvements to the property may be sufficient to retain the value of the property.

These few returning purchasers are, however, great news for the value of property. They may signal that mortgages are available and the purchasers are considering buying again. This alone may be sufficient to prevent prices from falling too fast.

There are many people who are still saying that house prices are far too high and need to fall between 40 and 50% from the 2007 high point. Generally they appear to have fallen 15 – 20 % from this level and may fall a further 5% during the next few months. However, there is anticipation that, provided there are no more baking or other external crises, by early Spring more buyers may start to return and prices will stabilise.

The only thing that we know for sure is that we don’t know which way the market is going to go.