Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Today has been a bit of a strange one.

After speaking with one of my oldest friends, who is trying to sell up and move down south, I’ve been reading up on the news on house prices and the housing market.

My friend bought the house a long time ago for something like £200,000, I think, and although it had gone up considerably a few years back when they flirted with the idea of selling, now it’s fallen down again. Which is strange, because apparently house prices finished 2009 around 4% higher than they started it.

But there are plenty of examples that this isn’t necessarily the case.

Here, for example, you can find dozens of examples of property prices falling, all collected neatly in the same place, as well as a number of slightly depressing predictions about when we can expect any kind of economic recovery.

You can check out repossession news, and finance market websites, you can get something of a picture to why such a recovery could be a long way off. Apparently up to 1 million UK households have used credit cards to pay for their house mortgages.

When we are at such a stage that we have to borrow so much money just to have a house to live in, it’s no wonder there are so many repossession problems. Despite a rise in online help, if you are in a situation where you are looking at remortgaging or repossession; despite investment companies offering ways to avoid repossession and stop repossessions, it can still be stressful and problematic. And it’s always worrying.

My friends are looking to move from Leeds down south, which will be good for me, because it means I can see them more. But it’s looking slightly more expensive for them than they were expecting. They’ve been looking out for mortgage deals already, of course, but it doesn’t mean that they’ve found any particularly striking ones.

Let’s hope that these predictions of a full economic recovery in 6 months time are correct.