…are themselves beginning to sound like a broken record. Everything has to be on a biblical scale when we talk about house prices and today is no different, year-on-year British house prices have fallen by 8.1% according to Nationwide. And, you guessed it, that’s the biggest annual drop since records began in 1991. This is the top story in most of our papers today, as you can probably imagine. Soon we'll be lining up the animals two by two and jumping in the ark to sail to safety.

House prices have been hugely overinflated in this country for a very long time, I know I say it often but even during this 'house price crash' it would cost you over half a million dollars to buy my (fairly crappy and tiny) one bed apartment in East London. I think this 'crash' is more of a 'correction', a reality check to those who have grown to think it's normal for small houses in nice areas to be worth the equivalent to a million+ dollars.

But, all that being said, news is news and today we've learned that the average British home has lost almost £15,000 (or 30,000 dollars) in value since July 2007 and the number of first time buyers has fallen by 41%. It's a difficult time for first time buyers, they've waited so long for the chance to buy a property, the prices come down and *BHAM* nobody will give them a mortgage. The average age of a first time buyer here is 34, I'd be interested to know how that compares to the US.

Anyway, a picure tells a thousand words so here's what's happening on the other side of the pond...

I don't think anyone will be framing this pic and hanging it over the mantle any time soon!