INDEPENDENT: Homeowners boxed in as property prices wobble Talk of whether the property market is going to crash or not has become almost an obsession for those who like to discuss the value of their home around the dinner table. And last week's figures from the UK's biggest building society, revealing the first drop in house prices for three years, will not have made for comfortable conversations.

Telegraph: House price sanity Many readers will be surprised to find The Telegraph, of all newspapers, welcoming a fall in house prices. After all, we have been champions of home-ownership for 150 years. But we are not turncoats: we believe that order is at last returning to the market, and that this is nothing to worry about.

Times Online - Borrowers taking on new debt to avoid repossession CITIZENS ADVICE this week urged homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments to be wary of taking on more debt to avoid losing their homes.

FT.com / Your money - Sarah Ross: Piling on debt Bank of England figures released yesterday show that lending to individuals has risen again - to just over £1,000bn in September, about £21,000 for each adult in the UK. Of this debt, £852bn is secured against property and the rest is consumer credit

Telegraph | News | House prices 'may fall 25 per cent' House prices may fall by up to a quarter over the coming years, one of Britain's top economists said yesterday.

Bloomberg.com: Bank of England Has Underestimated Pound's Strength, NIESR SaysThe pound may have performed more strongly against the currencies used by the U.K.'s trading partners than the Bank of England estimates, restraining inflation, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said

Mortgage demand slows AGAIN THE number of people taking mortgages last month was just 89,000 – the lowest figure since August 2000. It is a sharp decline from the summer when mortgage approvals averaged 102,000, according to the Bank of England, and a peak of 132,000 last December.

Mortgage Introducer: Nationwide catches up with housing market, according to haart estate agents Estate agents haart have reacted to the latest house price figures from the Nationwide building society.

Guardian: Economists warn of big tax rise Taxes will almost certainly rise in the next parliament by three pence in the pound if Gordon Brown is to meet his self-imposed "golden rule" for the public finances, leading economists said yesterday.

The Sun Newspaper: HOUSING CRASH ON CARDS? HOUSE prices have fallen for the first time in three years. Britain’s biggest building society Nationwide recorded a 0.4 per cent fall in October. This means the average home now costs £152,159 — down from £153,727 in September. That’s a drop of £52.27 EVERY DAY in the past month.

Headline news from Sky News: LIVING ON CASH KNIFE-EDGE Many Britons are living dangerously close to their financial limits, according to new research. A report by internet bank cahoot found that 27% admitted that even a small increase in their spending, such as a rise in interest rates or even paying for a holiday, would cause real financial strain.

Business World: UK growth to slow next year, says report The UK economy is set to grow around its trend rate over the next two years but inflation is set to rise towards the government's target as a tight labour market feeds through into higher wages, a leading think-tank said today.

Times Online - Digging themselves deeper into debt HOMEOWNERS in mortgage arrears are plunging themselves deeper in to debt by borrowing more as they battle to keep their property, the Citizens Advice Bureau gave warning yesterday.

Telegraph | News | House prices 'to continue falling' House prices are falling throughout Britain for the first time in three years, in a sign that the property market has taken a decisive turn for the worse.

Guardian Unlimited Money | Special_reports | Fears growing for big drops in house prices Further evidence that the housing market has run out of steam emerged yesterday as the Nationwide reported the first fall in prices for three years.

Telegraph | News | House prices 'to continue falling' House prices are falling throughout Britain for the first time in three years, in a sign that the property market has taken a decisive turn for the worse.

Independent News: "House prices go into reverse as rate rises take their toll" House prices posted their first monthly drop in three years in October, Nationwide said yesterday. But the building society went on to say it felt a sustained period of falling prices seemed unlikely while the jobs market remained strong.

News & Markets: House prices 'could tumble 25%' FEARS of a housing crash escalated today after a top City economist said a fall of between 20% and 25% in property prices could not be ruled out.

Guardian Unlimited Money | How low will they go? The warning signs have been there for a while, and now it seems as if house prices really are tumbling

NATIONWIDE REPORT: House Prices FALL (PDF)

This is Money: Repossessions on the rise More homeowners are failing to meet their mortgage repayments than at any time over the last four years.

BBC NEWS | Business | UK house prices 'fell in October' UK house prices fell by 0.4% in October - the biggest decline since February 2001 - according to the Nationwide.

Reuters: Q3 mortgage possession actions soar The number of court actions entered to repossess British homes in the third quarter rose to its highest level since early 2000, official data showed on Wednesday, a sign that dearer mortgages may be hurting.

Interactive Investor: UK net mortgage lending set to be relatively weaker in next few months - BBA British Bankers' Association warned of a further decline in mortgage lending over the coming months.

Reuters: UK mortgage approvals down sharply in Sept The number of British loan approvals for home purchase fell 29 percent in September on a year earlier in a fresh sign the housing market is losing steam

Property finance news: BUY-TO-LET LIES EXPOSED Estate agents are regularly boosting estimates of the returns likely from rental properties in order to hook the buy-to-let market.

Guardian Unlimited Money: Don't raise rates, CBI urges Bank of England Further evidence of the impact of record oil prices and a slowing world economy on Britain's manufacturers emerged yesterday as the CBI published a survey showing business confidence had slumped to its lowest level in over a year.

Western Daily Press: NO HOMES CRASH SAYS WESTBURY Housebuilder Westbury was able to shrug off any suggestion of a market meltdown yesterday with a 22 per cent leap in profits and an upbeat forecast. The Cheltenham group also raised its dividend by 20 per cent and promised double-digit growth in the payout for the long term.

ic Wales - Turning point in market reached THE Principality Building Society says its latest figures show the housing market has reached a turning point.

ic Wales: HAS THE HOUSING BUBBLE BURST? People in Wales have spent the past few years watching as their homes have become transformed into gold mines. But can it go on forever, asks Darren Devine as he examines whether the housing bubble in Wales has burst

Bloomberg.com:December Fed Rate Increase Predicted by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan
The Federal Reserve will surprise investors by raising its interest-rate target for overnight loans between banks in December, economists at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said.

Reuters: GDP data may overstate weakness Official figures may be overstating the weakness of the economy in the third quarter, a Bank of England policymaker says.

East Anglian Daily Times: Tax clampdown on empty homes THE owners of holiday homes and empty properties in the Tendring district look set to pay almost twice as much council tax.

Guardian: Inflation will remain stable, says Bank Inflation is set to stay low and stable despite some violent swings in the price of goods and services, a senior member of the Bank of England said today.

Times Online: Thousands of jobs to go in BBC shake-up THE BBC is finalising plans to cut up to a quarter of its 28,000 workforce in the biggest single reorganisation in its history. About 6,000 jobs are under threat from next year, although the final number of redundancies is yet to be decided, according to current thinking among BBC senior managers.

Find a Property: London Falling House prices fell in every borough in London last month as the market dipped by an average of -1.1 per cent, says Hometrack...October's fall follows last month's drop of -0.7 per cent and represents the fourth consecutive month in which London house prices have dropped. The average London house price now stands at £268,800.

ITV: House prices 'will keep on falling' Figures showed property price falls for the fourth consecutive month, down 0.6 per cent according to latest research, which predicts more falls to come.

Telegraph: New tax threat for older homeowners Fears are growing that tens of thousands of older homeowners could be hit by a new form of income tax that will take effect next April.

Headline news from Sky News: OIL PRICES HIT NEW HIGH Oil prices have hit another record high above $55 a barrel as a strike by Norwegian ship owners threatens to halt production in the world's third biggest exporting nation.

Western Daily Press: HOUSE PRICES FALL MOST IN WEST Not a single county experienced a price rise. Analysts have denied the fall is a sign of an impending property market crash, even though this is the fourth consecutive month of falls.

Times Newspaper Edition: How house prices affect inflation THE TIMES is running a fortnightly economic briefing to coincide with Target 2 Point 0, the competition for schools run in conjunction with the Bank of England. Target 2 Point 0 challenges schools to play the role of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and recommend a level for interest rates.

Times Online: House prices fall as buyers wither away HOUSE prices have fallen for the fourth consecutive month, confirming that the boom in property prices is over. Figures for the property market in September, released today by Hometrack, an independent data company, reveal that the average house price fell from its peak of £167,000 in May to £165,800 — a drop of 1.5 per cent.

Headline news from Sky News: MONEY WORRIES INCREASE The number of people worried about meeting their financial commitments in the next three months has more than doubled, latest figures reveal.

This is Money: Homeowners told not to fear crash HOME-owners have been told to expect house prices to continue to fall over the next few months, but not to fear an all-out property crash.

Reuters: Biggest drop in house prices in three years House prices in England and Wales fell in October at their steepest monthly pace in three years, property research company Hometrack says, the latest evidence of a once-booming market rapidly losing steam.

This is Money: Money Mail Vote What change in house prices do you expect over the next 12 months?

Times Online: Unmarried couples may face new tax on homes THOUSANDS of unmarried couples who bought houses together over the past 18 years could be hit by a new tax from the Inland Revenue, The Times has learnt.

Chancellor: 'I won't risk economy'Chancellor Gordon Brown has faced down critics in the City and the trade unions by insisting he will not relax financial disciplines in response to threatened strikes and soaring oil prices. Economists have warned that Mr Brown is in danger of breaking his "golden rule" because of worsening Treasury finances.

housefund.co.uk: Property Crash Warning to the IrishThe Economist has warned of a property crash in Ireland - reports AIB bank. The Economist believes that house prices in Dublin are evidence of a "frenzy" and in a report on the Irish economy, it believes that house prices could fall drastically.

Scotland on Sunday - 75 years on from Great Crash GENERATIONS on from the Wall Street Crash that began its spectacular unfolding 75 years ago today, the drama and its repercussions still haunt us.

Times Online - The Market House prices are falling more rapidly than at any time since summer 1995, according to a survey of its members by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Times Online - The Market: Knock me down A new plague is stalking the shires. It strikes at random and the effect is deadly. Last seen during the housing crash of the late 1980s, gazundering is back.

Times Online - Landlords lured by exaggerated returns INVESTORS are being enticed into the buy-to-let market by unrealistic expectations of high returns.