In some ways the housing market has resembled a drunk standing at the bar in some back-street boozer.

With every drink he has, people think he must soon stagger and tumble over. But he doesn't. He keeps drinking and he remains standing. He stays up for so long that eventually people decide they were wrong to think he would fall over.

But then, just as they decide he will never fall, he takes the last drink and finally tumbles to the ground.

What brought this analogy to mind was a recent poll of economists saying that they thought house prices were sustainable at the current level. A year ago they said prices were unsustainable. Given that the average price has gone up by 10% since then, this strikes me as afor January indicated that house price annual inflation may have peaked at 10% and be starting to fade.

Last week the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said house prices were rising at their slowest pace since June. Demand, it said, was dropping away and would continue to do so because of high prices and interest rates. Prices were holding up only because the number of properties being offered for sale was low.

In the last downturn, in 2005, new buyer inquiries fell first, just as they are doing now. The wobble is on. And supply may soon increase as sellers rush to beat the introduction of home information packs in the summer.

And the latest index from the website Rightmove, out this morning, shows the slowest rise in average asking prices