What madness? This madness...

House prices alert after biggest fall for 12 years [Telegraph]
Biggest drop in house prices for 12 years [Guardian]
Analysis: dire data [Times]
UK house prices see sharp tumble [BBC]
House prices decline for fastest rate in over a decade [House Move]
Shock fall in house prices [Express]

and

Is the roof falling in on the housing market? [Independent]

Now, the Rat and Mouse isn't going to claim the housing market is pointing in the same direction it was pointing this time last year. Nor am I trying to sweep under the carpet the terrible lending data that accompanied the Nationwide figures. But to make out that yesterday's Nationwide numbers are in any way a reliable indicator that something dramatic has just happened, signaling the tipping point, the very moment when the UK housing market fell off its perch, is not only nonsense, it's surely willful mischief on behalf of the media. They know, I know, you know, that the November drop of 0.8% - the "biggest drop in house prices in 12 years" - came after a rise, in October, of 1.1%. Clearly, October's rise was an anomaly (it arrived in the midst of other data that was all pointing to slight falls); and because of that a dramatic, corrective drop was almost inevitable for November. Taken alongside October's figure, November's 0.8% fall still leaves the market 0.3% up on September.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not buying UK property futures. All I'm saying is... let's not throw out our brains for the sake of a headline. Mix yourself a Marge, and have a cool weekend.

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