Everybody wants to blame Gordon Brown. He, however did not force people to take out inflated mortgages. The banks are not to blame either - the banks don't force people to take loans, overdrafts or VisaCards.

A very naive, greedy Joe Public can only blame himself for his own silly predicament...

Peter, Cambridge, UK

Our government should reject any programme that would support house prices, inadvertently or deliberately.

Our government should deter the irresponsible lenders by punishing guilty individuals and their employers.
Irresponsible borrowers will suffer enough. They should not be compensated.

john fred, Newport, IW, UK

If you take out a mortgage you are making a loan decision.
If you take such a loan out on an asset whose market value can vary, you are taking a risk.
If you are taking a risk, you must be prepared - OFF YOUR OWN BACK AND NOBODY ELSE'S - to face any outcome of the risk.

Now, live with your choices.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

More falls please. I have been steadily paying off my mortgage on a bijou three-bed over the last few years. Now my wife and I have commenced a family there is chance we may need to move up and the worries about the cost in the future is easing slightly. More falls and we will be cheering!!

Jez, Ryde, IOW

Enjoy the price falls why you can but do not delude yourselves. Supply and demand always prevails. Developers will not sell but ride it out in the strengthened lettings market until the banks start to lend again..and they will, because the mortgage business model, done right, is so lucrative.

Richard Brown, Coventry, West Midlands

Andrew Lee, Storrington.

I read nearly 50 comments and yours made me chuckle. i'll share a secret with you.

There is NOT a shortage of housing in this country!? We were told that to stop us questioning why we had to take on so much debt to live somewhere

Ssssh, please keep this secret to yourself

Richard, Ipswich,

Thems what benefit from falling house prices are those who sold last year :), those who want to buy more houses, and those who could not afford to buy a home AND are able to keep their jobs. Those buying at the peak of housing market, will still save 3-5% or so rent each year: shelter is a must.

lang, london,

Yup, let's have house prices settling back down to the true VALUE of a HOME to LIVE IN.
Sorry to anyone caught in the stupid speculative bubble....but that's life...you win some, you lose some.

Yan , Guisborough, Cleveland

Buy in Gloom sell in Boom

tony, melbourne, australia

Why "grim evidence"? It was a bubble and house prices got out of hand.

They are hopefully now going to correct themselves so normal people like me can afford to buy a place to live.

Sascha, London,

Will someone please accept some personal responsibility? The decision to take a loan is on the borrower not the bank - if you took out a foolhardy mortgage because you thought you'd benefit from a rising market, you gambled and lost. Why should the rest of us be forced by the gov to compensate you?

N Adams, Bucks, UK

houses should cost about 20k, at most, 30k

jason palmer, london,

All comes down to supply and demand. The deeper the fall now, the greater the reduction in supply will be (i.e new homes being built) and the greater the next bubble will be, once the market picks up - and it will, because our increasing population will always need somewhere to live.

Andrew Lee, Storrington,

We shouldn't be too gleeful about falling house prices. The more house prices fall, the more expensive the Northern Rock debacle will become. Thanks to Gordon, we taxpayers will all pay back a share of that nationalised debt.

Peter, Liverpool, UK

For all the gloominess, a big fall is not great for any home owner, but a gradual underperforming of the stockmarket would be ideal. That way pensions increase, while housing does not get way out of first time buyer's league. after all, most people don't buy to make money but to have a home.

John, Knutsford, UK

A 50% reduction from the bubble would be about right.

James, London, UK

Ken, Oxford - An annualised rate is compounded; 1.9% annualised over 12 months is in fact 25.34%.

Richard, London,

Can someone high five me for the house price crash!

In my area, the BTL type flats asking prices have fallen between 20-30%. Of course, I'm wondering where everyone is living, considering we've been told there is a shortage of "affordable" housing!

Paul, Camberley,

We could afford to come back soon and pay cash for a nice home except the taxes are far too high there and in some areas it is now too dangerous to walk the streets. Lower house prices will be a good thing again but many estate agents and developers will have to work for a living again.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

It seems most people think house price falls are good. For those that don't, surely lower mortgage payments means more available desposable cash to spend on other items, thus boosting the falling economy? The sooner mortgage bills are lower for the masses the better off the country will be.

Ian, Essex, UK

Good news on prices

If house builders want to offer "huge incentives" how about dropping the price to something realistic? Building the house costs relatively little, especially these tiny new-builds. The rest of the cost is land which they themselves inflated by buying up massive land banks

Phil, Welwyn, UK

Who is the idiot who bought half a house from Wimpey?

Richard, Altrincham, UK

We are going the way of america.And we do not have the MASSIVE JOB LOSSES YET.So does anyone remember about a year ago when all these experts said house prices will level off and we will not go into recession.

elina, croydon,

The front page blurb of "annualised 10.5% last month" is incorrect. Annualised the monthly fall of 1.9% would be 22.8%, the 10.5% fall is the year-on-year rate.

Ken, Oxford,

so glad i chose to rent a couple of years back now, this is just the start of the fall. I have to admit to feeling a little bit smug now.

jeff, milton keynes, uk

Sometimes we miss the big picture , this is this best thing that can happen to our children , prices need to go down a further thirty percent , people need to stop living by the inflatory housing prices and the goverment needs to build an economy based on a good working infratructure

Andy, chalfont st peter, england

.... And prices are going to keep on declining until they reach a sustainable level. With banks reining back lending to appropriate levels, and people living beyond their means in debt, how can high prices be maintained? Come on Gordon Brown - another comical desperate release is due soon... Surely!

Goldmember, Bristol, UK

Sometimes we miss the big picture , this is this best thing that can happen to our children , prices need to go down a further thirty percent , people need to stop living by the inflatory housing prices and the goverment needs to build an economy based on a good working infratructure.

Andy, chalfont st peter, england

Scaremongering....oh how we love it! Prices may fall a little but not too much, how can they for the folk that have bought in the last couple of years...it just can't happen there will be anarchy!!!

Natalie, London ,

Well, I hope you're happy. You wanted it, and now you've got it.

John F, London,

More boring house prices.
They have nowhere to go except down, down, deeper and down. Where will it end? My guess is the bottom will be somewhere by 125,000, because this equates to a loan of 3.5* a salary of 30,000 plus 20% deposit. Affordable at last. The sooner we get there, the better for all.

bob travels, stevenage,

F Early was predicting an 8% rise from August 2007 - August 2008. The people at the top of the banks became used to a world of ever rising house prices and believers in "new" economics - just like the rst of us. How wrong she was.

Chris, Chipping Norton,

Excellent news. If the price of any other staple commodity had increased 3 fold in the last 10 years then the masses would be rioting in the streets.

The big question now, however, is when is Kirsty Allsop going to eat her hat

David Wilkinson, Bournemouth, England

I've just found an old advert for houses in Wolverhampton in 1999. Terraced £16/25K, 3bed semis £35/50K,4bed detached £58/75k.
Near full employment then, much in manufacturing paying above average wages. Now, massive job losses, wholesale factory closures, jobs in retail paying £6 per hour.

A.Williams, Cradley Heath,

Is this not the same things the papers have been saying everyday for the last six months, with a different head line?? I would still rather be in this economic climate than that of the early 90's, and that recovered ok..!!! Houses are for living in, not making money.

David, London, UK

It is very clear that Gordon Brown did nothing in terms of economic growth. It was simple that he was at the right place at the right time and he took the credit!

The whole is nation is going to pay the price for the greediness of bunch bankers, estate agents and sellers.

Raj, London,

property programmes need to wake up and smell the coffee, house prices are falling, people can put in a lower offer, i guess some people will be eating their hats!

lia, harlow,

Don't worry - Gordon Brown can now sell the UK's Gold reserves at the top of the market....or rather he could if he hadn't already sold them at the bottom.

What's the point of having "rainy day" gold reserves if you don't keep them for when times are tough?

James, London, UK

Houses are vastly inflated following years of loose lending.
There is no magic way of making houses stay up in price while not creating a firestorm of inflation through the real economy.

House price falls are the price to be paid for being able to eat and heat your home.

Pat, Coromandel, NZ

Excellent news that house prices are finally coming down from the totally absurd levels they had reached. Long may it continue! It desperately needs a correction and the sooner the better to avoid far greater problems. And I AM a house owner!!

Pedro, London, UK

And we are only just Entering what will be a rather nasty recession too !!! . Perhaps your average joe will finally wake up too the Dark times we are entering...there will be no quick fix to this one !!!

Andy Cooper, Oxford, uk

I remember reading a few years ago that house prices on average were 30% more than they should be, fuelled by greedy estate agents and property developers. They are the only ones who will really suffer from this fall, not the average house owner who bought their home as a long term investment.

Tony, London, UK

Yay! I might soon be able to afford to live (somewhere)!

Why the government let house prices get to such ridiculous levels is beyond me. Then again, it won't be long before Gordon "Master of teh Economy" Brown is just a pinful footnote in a history of painful footnotes.

Mike, Bristol,

Forget the 'cool Britannia' era, that is over. England is going back to the dark days of the 1970's with all that that entails. England no longer has a real economy, just a collection of boutique restaurants, cafe's and estate agents. That house of cards is collapsing.

John , Reading,

This one will run and run.

With no end to the lending crisis in sight, and the risk that it spreads to manufacturing and business in general, the bottom is still a long, long way down.

MarkS, Leeds,

The doom and gloom - is because some people were stupid enough to spend this 'windfall' - which means that now we will all have to pay it back.

It's a bit like a bank putting money into your account by accident. If you don't spend it - you're fine. If you do - you're stuck - or rather we all are.

Jeremy, Hassocks, sussex

All those city bonuses should be taxed retrospectively for the past 5 years at 90% and put into a fund to help out all those struggling home-owners that were sold these outragously unsafe mortgages

John Goode, Welwyn Garden City, UK

Banks need to start to improvere the loan to value deals so that first time buyers can provide a realisitc deposit. Without that - earnings are irrelevant. The writing is on the wall - without some relaxation in criteria lenders face a big increase in repos and mounting losses from fire sales!

adrian simm, st james, Barbados

I'm glad this has happened. Now hopefully we will finally see the end of greedy developers building excessive amounts of overpriced flats on every tiny bit of green they can find.

EW, Southampton, UK

Hi Simon, what Crash Gordon, actually said was 'No, more boom and bust'. His genius is so misundertood!

David, Coleraine,

Good!

Long may it continue, until the vast majority can afford a home again, not just struggle to exisit...

D.Jones, London,

The doom and gloom, Hamad, is because a lot of people will be facing up to the fact that their homes are worth less than their mortgages. If they can't pay their mortgages because of inflation they will lose their homes. The best thing would be stability for a few years to allow wages to catch up

Guy, London,

The housing market will follow the rest of the economy, and that means it will continue to go down until 2010. Whoever buys today should negotiate a 20% reduction of the asking price to avoid negative equity, or should simply wait a year or two. Surely, there are much lower prices to come.

Peter, Liverpool, UK

This is very good news indeed. Until house prices return to affordable levels for the average person(s) obtaining what used to be sensible multiples - then I suggest that house prices have a long way to fall yet...

John Reynolds, Newcastle,

Phew - I'm glad I didn't take Anne Ashworth's advice and 'snap up a bargain' a few months back like all the 'smart money' was apparently doing at the time. I'd have lost thousands!

Tim, London, UK

And Gordon Brown said he'd stopped the Boom and Bust cycle. Labour inherited a growing economy and will pass on a bankrupt one ...... another familiar cycle.

Simon Wilson Stephens, London, UK

The average single persons wage is around 22k - x 3 = 66k .
Therefore, the average price of a modest house has still a long, long way to fall (assuming the banks have now learned their lesson, no more than three times salary, 10% deposit - and no extras to go cuddle orang-utans (remember the ad?)

Darius Midwinter, London,

Why the doom and gloom. Surely, long term it will be good for everyone because the prices will come down to an affordable level. This would lead to a better overall quality of life.

Hamad Lone, London, England