2008 was the year when we discovered that what we all had considered to be our most honest, trustworthy and stable institutions, the Banks, were a bunch of lying bastards. There is no other expression that correctly states the situation.

For years they have been lying to each other, hiding extremely high risk mortgages in very large mortgage bundles that have been passed from Bank to Bank as security for inter-bank lending. They didn't trust each other then, and certainly don't now.

It is very fair to say that the current economic situation was centred in America, but that our Banks are as much to blame as anyone else and now we are all paying the price.

2009 will see a return to some form of stability but, and let's face the facts here, it is going to be a pretty bleak year for us all.

Most specifically, the housing market is at worst state that I have ever experienced in my career, which started in the early 1970's. I have seen recessionary periods in the housing market, and this is undoubtedly the worst.

I sincerely hope that I won't experience this situation again, in my lifetime.

While I am on the attack, let me now have a go at the appalling standard of British journalism.

Ever keen to spread the bad news, banner headlines reading "House prices to drop 25%" hit the papers in 2008. More accurate reporting would have been "House prices may drop 25% from 1 year ago (2007) to the end of 2009.

Journalists take pleasure in reporting the facts as they see them and do not appear to be prepared to report as accurately and honestly as they should.

I have to wonder if those journalists who own their own homes are conscious of the damage they have caused to their own equity and, of course, I also wonder how many journalists are living in rented accommodation and are perhaps "hacked off" that they didn't get on the housing ladder when prices were increasing.

Everyone has lost, but there is some hope.

Duncan Young of Sanderson Young Estate Agents in Gosforth produced an absolutely brilliant commentary on the current state of the housing market in a recent edition of the Househunter. What he said was perfectly true and not "Estate Agents bollocks".

As Duncan so accurately stated, house prices are down, but for anyone moving upmarket, the reduction that they take on the price they achieve for their own property is more than compensated for by the reduction that they achieve on the more expensive house that they buy.

Those people are, in effect, quids in, or will be when the market recovers, as is it inevitably will.

Now has never been a better time to buy if you can sell your own home and are moving upmarket.

Sellers are so desperate to keep their sale going that they will negotiate further on the bid price at a late stage.

The very best way of achieving this is to commission a competent and capable Chartered Surveyor to prepare a private Survey Report which will detail matters of condition and disrepair and assess value on a condition basis, as well as taking into account the current appalling state of the market.

80% of our private survey Clients during 2008 re-negotiated the purchase price after receiving their private Survey Report.

In the current market, a survey fee is money well spent.

If you don't have your own home, this could be the best year to make the move. House prices have fallen but they will go up again. That's what happened in the past and there is no reason why the future will be different. 

Anyone with the ability to raise a mortgage will be able to drive hard bargains.

Finding a loan will be tough. Despite Gordon Brown telling the Banks to lend, their Balance Sheets are so skewed that they are making ludicrous excuses not to do so.

Don't give them the chance. Building Societies should be better than the Banks, as many have avoided Gordon Brown and stuck to the simple plan of lending what savers deposit.

Thinking of your first home? 

Do it now, or you'll be kicking yourself in two years time.