One thing is for sure the predictions of when and where house prices will bottom out and begin to rise are as volatile as the prices themselves. According to the latest research by the Centre of Economics and Business Research, house prices are still to fall. The group of economists predict that house prices will continue to fall by about 3% as we enter the year-end. However, the good news is they say that in 2010 house prices will rise by 2%. And they doesn’t just stop there, rather they suggest that house prices will continue to rise by 3.6% by 2011. The rationale behind the report was the fact that the recession has caused a slump in the supply of housing which would cause a bottleneck when demand picked up.

In stark contrast to the report by CEBR, RICS have suggested that house prices could fall by as much as 10-15% in 2009 and remain cloudy into 2010. They suggest that tight credit, reduced number of sales and increasing unemployment are at the root cause of their pessimism.

So what do the housing indices suggest? Evidence from the Halifax Housing Index seems in favour of the belief that things are picking up. They suggest mortgage approvals between the first and second quarters are up 22%, however they remain at levels half that in mid 2007. The Nationwide have recently suggested that house prices may rise in 2009 based on the fact that only 100,000 homes are being built this year, which is a record low in the UK for some time.

At the other extreme, Capital Economics have suggested that house prices will fall by 35%. The list of opinions go on and on, but with so many confusing messages out there, it seems home owners and buyers do not know if they are coming or going.

In reality, the sum of all these reports leads to one conclusion: no one can agree on where house prices are going.