Robertwood Avenue

The economic down turn over the last 12 months has led to a huge shift in the criteria that the banks lend on, less mortgage approvals, having a devastating affect on house prices nationwide.
As far as figures go, if we compare December 2008, with the same period in 2007, there is a like for like 16% drop, now settling at the lowest average price since 2004, with literally hundreds of thousands of home owners finding them selves in negative equity.
Not only have we seen a 16% drop in 12 months, but in December alone, house prices averaged and nation wide dropped a huge 2.2 percent and so far, have shown no sign of slowing down.
What began as a small slump has been amplified by the media and now the fact that banks simply are not lending to the people that want to buy the houses, increased supply, decreased demand, equals major cash flow problems throughout the housing market, which end up in a crash like the one we see today.
Agreed, house prices are at their most affordable in the last say, five years, but while banks continue to crunch the criteria, freezing first time buyers out of the market, the problem will continue. The average lending is now down to 4.44 times average salary, with the long term goal sitting at around 4.0.