House prices are dependant on available cash. In the late 80's it was greedy estate agents and the like trying to sell you a house AND a loan - why did people think that giving the gazumper all the details of your income was not important?

I was telling the estate agents then they could sell me a house or a mortgage and they got to choose which. They acted all innocent! To a person.

Now it is the parents of first time buyers adding to the crass availability of loans. Apparently there are a lot of parents with disposable income helping their offspring with deposits. If money is availanble - up goes the price. House is synonymous with home - logic has less influence than emotion. Add in the immediacy "young world" expect and you have price pressure upwards. As soon a interest rates go up and mortgage foreclosures become more common place again and a dip in world economy hits because of rising fuel prices ............

And given that there is too much heat in the housing market - it doesn't take an expert to see a dip in the market. Now it is a clever or gambling man that bets his savings on when that happens. But I predict it will. I have seen too many in my time. Say every 15 years with a mini blip half that. Because it takes about a generation who haven't felt the misery of negative equity and redundancy.

On that basis we are due a crisis any year now.