Conflicting reports in the media predicting just about everything from a full-blown property crash to a miniboom next spring, leaves home-owners and potential buyers only able to speculate about the big question this season; 'what will my house be worth this time next year?'

A question that estate agents and economic forecasters would have been more than happy to answer a few years ago, now elicits a cautious and guarded reply, with even the property experts unsure as to what our homes will be valued at this time next year. According to the most recent statistics from the Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index, house prices in Dublin fell by 4.8% in the period up until the end of October 2007, while outside Dublin they fell by 4.9% during the same time. The report also shows that the average price of a house in Dublin is now 403,535 compared to 427,343 this time last year. Outside Dublin the average price of a house is 253,938 compared to 266,339 last year.

Static market
It's not all gloom and doom for 2008, says Marian Finnegan, economist with Sherry FitzGerald. "It's been a sluggish year for the property market, but it's begun to ease.

At the end of the summer there was no interest-rate increase, and people realised there wasn't going to be one for at least another six to eight months, which brought a little more activity back to the market, " explains Finnegan, adding that despite the slowdown, firsttime buyers remained fairly active, accounting for 34% of their sales in the first three-quarters of this year, while investors accounted for 17% during the same period.

But what about the year ahead?
"Well, we're not going to see a sudden reversal of the market back to a boom in 2008. The boom happened because we had an inadequate supply of homes in Ireland.

Now those homes have been supplied, and we need to reduce our annual building to around 50,000 homes for the next 15 years, to prevent an over-supply, " says Finnegan, who expects to see house prices stabilise next year, rather than plummet. "We expect a more static market for 2008. Most houses will perform as they should in a normal market, increasing each year, but only in single digit figures."

Negative equity
A more static market is certainly what vendors are hoping for. But those who think that finance minster Brian Cowen's recent changes to stamp duty will have buyers knocking down doors to snap up a quick sale may be disappointed.

According to new research by Merrion Stockbrokers, out of 35 estate agents surveyed in 24 of the 26 counties around the country, 74% reported no change in the level of enquiries since the budget move.

Admittedly, December is normally a quiet time of year, and the report did also reveal that potential buyers are more influenced by sensitivity to interest rate movements and confidence on future prices.

Cowen's changes are also unlikely, for the minute at least, to see prices rising.

Goodbody Stockbrokers are predicting that house prices will continue to fall in 2008, by as much as 8%. Until we reach a leveling off, properties may continue to be slow to shift.

Anyone who bought a house in the last two to three years could also be faced with the very real prospect of negative equity, where the mortgage being paid far exceeds the actual value of the property. And to make matters worse, some developers of new homes have already started to reduce the price of their properties, which means that recent buyers have been forced into immediate negative equity.

On a more positive note, Wade Wise, director of Savills HOK, reports that the gap between achieved sales prices and asking prices has actually diminished over the last three months, with some buyers getting higher than the asking price for their home. A sign, according to Wise, that we may actually be close to prices leveling off, if not already there.