They have leapt on reports by the likes of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which spoke of stagnant demand with declining sales and new instructions.
Nationwide reported month-on-month prices were down by 0.2 per cent, but only after “seasonal adjustments”. This was the third consecutive monthly fall, but it came in a period with four bank holidays in six weeks.
Is there anything to worry about other than talking ourselves into a house price recession?Land Registry and Halifax figures also imply a gentle spring fall – though all three have them higher than at this time last year.
So, is there anything to worry about other than talking ourselves into a house price recession? I suspect much will depend on whether you believe the bottom up or top down theory.
Hamptons International tells us that the number of European buyers for prime central London property fell from 28 per cent of the market before the decision to leave the EU to 8 per cent in the first three months of this year. But there has been a surge in buyers from the Middle East and a return of Russian interest.
However, central London has increasingly become a market insulated from the rest of the country. The selling price of a mansion in Mayfair means very little to the average homeowner in Grantham or Goole. Nor are overseas buyers likely to affect the profits of Ipswich Building Society.
More important is what is happening in the outer reaches of London and the rest of the country. Halifax tells us confidence has stabilised after a heavy post-Brexit vote fall and supply is limited.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reported last month that first-time buyers borrowed 12 per cent more year-on-year, suggesting they are finding it easier to get into the market.
For first-timers and anyone planning to trade up, the occasional gentle fall in house prices is no bad thing.
It is only those at the top of the housing pyramid who are really affected – and there is little incentive for them to trade down if their most precious asset is rapidly increasing in value.
So I am afraid I can not get too concerned about the housing market, except on one point – the increasingly number of very high loan-to-value deals.
It was this combined with rising mortgage rates and unemployment that sparked the repossession crisis of the early 1990s. Lending to people who could not afford to repay was the root of the 2008 banking crisis.
Let us hope the banks and building societies are doing their sums this time.
Pensioner taxpayers
I noticed some puzzlement among newspapers and “experts” recently that the number of pensioners paying tax has jumped substantially over the past 20 years.
HMRC figures show that the proportion of taxpayers over state pension age has increased faster than the proportion of the population in that age bracket.
Experts were described as “mystified”, because the UK’s personal allowance has risen rapidly, especially towards the end of this period.
Well, let us enlighten them because it is hardly rocket science. For starters, the pensioners' personal allowance has been snatched away.
This stood at £9,490 in April 2009 while the general personal allowance was £6,475.
So by April 2016 the allowance for those of working age had gone up almost 70 per cent to £11,000 that for the over 65s had risen a mere 16 per cent.
For the over-75s the rise was just 14 per cent to the new universal level of £11,000.
There’s also been a squeeze in the married couples allowance, which is now only given at a 10 per cent rate – and, crucially, is not available to younger pensioners.
Add to that a generation of retirees where a decent proportion have some form of defined benefit pension and the above-inflation increases in the state pension in recent years. Hey presto: the increase in pensioner taxpayers ceases to be a mystery.
Investment transparency
More weight to the “transparency is good” theory comes with the decision of Lyxor to cut its fees across its 10 World Sector ETFs from 0.4 per cent to 0.3 per cent.
The more investors can learn about what they are being charged and what they get for their money the better it will be for the investment industry overall.
Businesses need to make profits. But those profits should be reasonable and based on the service or quality of the product provided.
ETFs are often basic so fees should be low.
Investors having been paying far too much for far too long. The reckoning may at last be coming.
Tony Hazell writes for the Daily Mail's Money Mail section
