See what happens when I leave town for a couple of weeks? The North-South house price gap narrows so much there's talk of London "losing the house price crown", Hometrack reports that annual deflation reaches its highest level in more than four years with a -0.2% drop in prices in July, and Housing Futures 2025 (a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research) suggests that houses are still overvalued by around 5%. I don't know what to say. Sorry? And thanks to guest-blogger Gil for injecting new life into the Rat and Mouse over the last fortnight. Hopefully he'll continue to post.