The blame for stock market fluctuations has been pinned on young men. The testosterone hormone encourages traders (mostly male) to take greater risks, according to new research.

But the profits to be made from such escapades can also propel the traders into reckless loss-making decisions. The resulting stress produces cortisol, another hormone, which deters them from even potentially lucrative deals; they subside into “learned helplessness”.

It is not known whether, in the cause of gender equality, the academics behind this study are also investigating the role of hormones in the housing market, where women tend to have the upper hand in choosing a house.

However, learned helplessness, paralysis of a sort, sums up the current mood of homebuyers. They are fearful of repeating the mistakes made by purchasers in previous slowdowns. But even in this state of mind homebuyers are still looking for someone to be held accountable for the gloom that has descended. This resentment could influence votes in the local elections on May 1. As we reported last week, Experian, the credit reference agency, has listed the average mortgage debt and average house price in every constituency, indicating residents' susceptibility to repossession. This is highest in some neighbourhoods of Birmingham, Chatham, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham, as our table on page 4 shows. Could aggrieved owner-occupiers make their views felt at the polling station?

Mindful that the Experian data could prompt a backlash in the May elections, the Government has been trying to pin the blame for lower house prices on the banks. But mortgage lenders evidently care little about the Prime Minister's opinion, or the threat of his big clunking fist. For, within hours of their credit crunch solution “summit” on Tuesday with Gordon Brown at No 10, Abbey, Halifax, HBOS and Woolwich had all raised their rates on various of their loan offers.

This kind of behaviour is, presumably, the reason why most of the estate agent members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are now more mad at the banks than at the press over the change in market sentiment. In its latest survey, its most downbeat to date, RICS states: “Price falls are being driven by the inability of many to secure finance rather than an influx of supply onto the market.”

The slump in transactions being produced from the lack of mortgage funds is likely to send some estate agencies to the wall. This is one side effect of the credit crunch, which is seen as glad tidings by those who responded online to the report in The Times this week that the sector could shrink by one third. There are some who contend that estate agents' greed caused the market's upward spiral and its subsequent decline.

And so the blame game continues. But it might be more profitable to examine instead the mistakes made in previous downturns.

The most obvious mistake is to buy a home that is still overvalued. Fortunately, the huge amount of price information available online today should make this less likely than in the past.

Scanning these figures will be those who live by the principle that, in nervous times, you buy “before you see the light at the end of the tunnel”, as one of these risk-takers described it to me this week. The credit crunch may, however, hold even him back from this adrenalin sport.

GENDER IMBALANCE

Just in case those responsible for the research linking testosterone levels to the ups and downs of the Footsie 100 do not get around to the connections between female hormones and house prices, we conducted an informal study of our own. There was general agreement that the wife or girlfriend decides which house to buy, with the bloke ceding to her wishes.

The roles are almost invariably reversed, however, in sales of £4 million or more, “because, in such cases, it's the husband who's the investment banker”, as one agent put it. But just in case you were thinking that couples revert to Fifties stereotypes in property purchases, Liza-Jane Kelly, the sales director of Marsh & Parsons, finds that men are more likely to be impulsive in these situations.

THE MAX FACTOR

The website Semper Eadem (Latin for always the same) celebrates 15 places in Leicester that have not changed for at least 25 years, something of a feat. These include the St Barnabas library, pictured above, which opened in 1963. Its minimalist style will make it highly attractive to some.

But if you retain a soft spot for Eighties “maximalism”, turn to pages 14-15, where we report on the sale of the Knightsbridge mews house that was the backdrop for the iconic Volkswagen TV ad starring Paula Hamilton. If you could not understand why anyone would walk away from such a property and throw the key down a drain, it could be yours - if you have £2.25 million.

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