Median price at August 2008: £182,368

General increase since Sept 2007: 1%

Projected increase to Sept 2009: 0%

Five-year increase: 60% (£114,302)

Ten-year increase: 178% (£65,683)

The complete Midlothian price guide

Like much of central Scotland’s commuter belt, Midlothian is a county of distinct micro markets. At one extreme are Dalkeith’s prosaic rows of former local authority housing, at the other the millionaires’ rows of Lasswade.

In many respects, the market it most resembles currently is Lanarkshire, although Midlothian is a satellite market of the capital rather than of Glasgow, and Stuart & Stuart’s Hazel Lowrie paints a similarly downbeat picture to her counterpart Century 21’s John McCabe in Motherwell.

“We are now returning to our norm after a decade of abnormal market conditions, ” she states.

According to HBOS, in the past ten years average prices in the capital commuter-belt county have risen by just under £120,000 (178%) and, as a result, Lowrie says numerous local agents have never known anything but boom times and are ill-equipped to deal with this stark new reality.

She says: “I’ve been here before and was probably one of the few local agents not surprised by the swing in prices. It isn’t all bad news.

“If you are realistic, you can still prosper if you sell first and drive a hard bargain as you trade up through the market. Values are an equation contingent upon what you have to sell and where you want to move to.”

The £250,000-plus family market in Midlothian — as almost everywhere — has taken on a distinctly sickly pallor. For hard-pressed, white-collar commuters the combined effects of successive interest rate rises, stamp duty, council tax and travel costs are taking their toll on the family coffers, and there is clearly a price backlash on the larger new-build estates. Our reconnaissance on the ground suggests that things in Dalkeith are sluggish rather than volatile.

With a marked drop in sales activity, Lowrie says it is good for the market to pause for breath. “I think property has become too high profile and the emphasis on speculation is just too marked. We need to get back to an idea of homes as roofs over our heads first and foremost rather than primarily as investment vehicles,” she says.

The current market is a hostile place, especially for those who believed they could grow rich from the fat of the land indefinitely.

Lowrie adds: “Some people are choosing to rent having sold up, and predatory investment companies have been contacting local agents looking to buy up clients’ unsold properties for a song.

“The buy-to-let market has all but dried up but if you have a portfolio it would make sense to hold onto it. If forced to sell, the chances are you may have to reduce your price.”

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers