David, London - The self fulfilling profecy already happened. Banks, EAs, BTLs and owners already talked the market UP into an unsustainable boom.

It now needs to be corrected, now that banks have realised lending money to people who couldn't pay it back was actually a bad idea.

tony, Belfast,

Property price increases cannot continuously out-perform salaries, otherwise it will ALWAYS eventually become unafforable. Your 'home' is not an investment!

House prices have too much tendancy to go up, and so need corrected every 18 years or so with a crash. Its nothing new.

tony, Belfast,

I love the fact the estate agents blame the credit crunch, when it's overpriced houses that caused the credit crunch in the first place.

bob, London, UK

It's mass hysteria. Because people are so heavily taxed in this country no one can amass any real wealth by saving or through investment. So the illusory wealth in their house becomes all consuming and all important. The part the so called 'intelligent' media have played in this is reprehensible.

Hilary, Southall,

Just looked at your video. Wow you can't stop yourselves! Give me some good news! Please, PLEASE, tell me my house has gone UP in value. I can't STAND IT IF YOU DON'T!
When are you lot going to get into your thick heads that high house prices are a BAD thing.
Only the banks win.

Hilary, Southall,

This really is a case of a self fulfilling prophecy. Everyone's talking themselves into a crisis! My flat is currently on the market for a price far more than it would have been a year ago. All it is is that prices are just not rising as fast as they have been. Property is always a long term thing..

David, London,

Why should there be intervention? Is our economy so HPI dependant that the government intervenes. Let the market revert back to historic ratios.No one saved our steel or mining industries which were useful. By the way expensive houses are sterling assets which have lost 20% in value unless hedged!

david barker, eastbourne,

A lot of property pundits remain behind the curve. Last year Savills and similar organisations said prices would not fall, then it become that they may fall a little but would soon recover and now they are calling a fall of upto 25%. This will again be proven wrong, I suspect 35-40% is on the cards.

Mike Livingstone, Reigate, UK

Who cares if the market crashes? I for one am very happy that prices are dropping.

The vast majority of people (perhaps the government should read that as VOTERS) have a lot to benefit from a housing price crash.

Do Labour still wonder why they did so badly in the recent local elections??

Kong, MAnchester, UK

Most of the leading market comentators have people who do little but watch the housing market and related indicators. Unlike estate agents their jobs aren't riding on the numbers. The fact that EAs are gloomy means that the dismal outlook is simply beyond spin

Jonathan, London,

Property prices are in decline and unless the credit crunch resolves itself soon price declines of 25%+ are not unfeasible.
I am happy to see more realistic house prices but a sharp decline in the market will have a wide impact on the economy = large unemployment = recession

Ben, York,

Why are journalists/TV producers etc obsessed with property prices falling? Not all your readers/viewers own homes!
I can't remember the same sort of negative coverage given to the propery boom - which leaft even people like myself on just under £50k a year unable to buy anywhere decent.

Andrew Soames, London, UK

Even the language is biased to get the suckers in, and massage the impending rout!
The property market is not 'slowing down', as seems the popular phrase - it's gone into reverse. And what nonsense is 'negative house price growth' - house price falls? Property ladder = property snake!

David, Birmingham,

The usual balanced reporting from the Times property section I see.
Glad you are keeping your advertisers happy.
Pity no-one believes a word you print any more - a short term slowdown like in 2004? Don't make me laugh, (or treat me like an idiot).

Gareth Jones, Dusseldorf, Germany

Joe in Edinburgh is spot on. What good are rising house prices if you wish to trade up? A decade ago an extra bedroom cost about £20K, now it's more than £50K.

As Tom in Ludlow has accurately put it, the media like to describe debt in any other terms than what it really is - pay it off asap!

Paul, Coventry,

Stop trying to fiddle in stopping the correction. HPI to wages has been insanely out of whack, funded by easy credit.

You got all your pretend wealth in property - welcome to illiquidity.

Well said Nick. I'm totally priced out of Wilmslow.

DS, Manchester, UK

Excessive house prices mean that generation X's legacy to generation Y is a mountain of mortage debt. This coupled with lower rates of return on investments, higher taxes plus small annuity rates means the younger generation can look forward to working longer before retiring with next to nothing.

Nick, Wilmslow, Cheshire

These property vested interests are absolutely insane. They havebeen living it large for too long and are now in denial.

The property market will be "resolved" when it crashes. End of!

John, Manchester, UK

What's all this home owner stuff, most of these are in fact debtors.
Please, please can some one tell me why property price inflation is good, food, energy and other inflation bad.
Other than in the fact that inflation destroys debt of the few and the wealth of the many.

Tom Taylor-Duxbury, Ludlow, UK

House price rises are an enigma, for those of us who buy our homes a rise of 10% a year does nothing for our overall wealth as to buy another home will cost more also. When we eventually retire and move to a smaller home we could of course make a profit. The real winners are property investors.

Joe, Edinburgh, Scotland