James your last response is very interesting. I did think that you rather naively misunderstood how the market works when you talk about the ?price?. But I think you get the issues, your just not putting it together. Like you rightly say it?s asking prices that are sticky, this is not a true measure of the market, its just a measure of denial. A house can sit in the Estate agents window at 5% off 2007 price as long as it likes, but the true market what actually changes hands.

The only stuff actually being sold is going for a lot less than the estate agent windows would have you believe. You laugh at me for suggesting that you could get a 3-bed house 10 minutes walk from the station for ?150k. But a colleague of mine completed on a 3-bed property on Dacres road for slightly less than that yesterday. It would have been in the estate agents window for an awful lot more, but my colleague did not think it was worth that, nor evidently nor did the seller actually expect to get it.

If you want to keep tabs on ?asking prices? take a look at http://www.propertysnake.co.uk/site/postcode/se23

Although its worth repeating these are the house that are chasing the market down by always lowering their asking prices behind the market. The stuff that actually sells is priced down ahead of the market.

And respectfully, we did not have a 7 year boom that is going to all blow over in just a couple months. Its your future so you must do as you judge right, but I would caution you against buying in 5-6 months unless you offer an amount that factors in the rest of the fall. Just my opinion. I say it because I honestly think it will help you in the long term.