Once I recommended the Happyendingz blog. It turns out that the Happyendingz economic index is rather good! She said that tradesmen are getting work. I didn't follow anything in particular because I didn't want to know how deep my head is below water. And it wasn't as bad as I imagined, but still ...

From estate agents gossips, foreclosures are no big deal. Those negative equity properties are basically written off by the banks and taken into stock. Very few people can bid at auctions no matter how good the deal is, because it's all cash transactions. So normal people have still to borrow from the banks, go through estate agents to get their house. So the banks have some regulating powers on the supply and demand of the market. If you always have spare money, you always have to pick cash, stock or real estate. What would you do? It looks like there are some sales and some listings. At least these houses are being fixed to sale conditions.