It seems it is time once again for heralding the doom of the property market. This morning, the media is all abuzz with the news from RICS that house prices have fallen for the first time in a year. According to their latest housing market survey, eight per cent more surveyors saw a fall than a rise in July, and the only regions to see material rises were London and the North West. Cue the ‘return of the recessions’, ‘double-dip fears’ and ‘house market stalling’ headlines.

Yes, it does sound like bad news, but look behind the headlines and you will see there’s a little more to it. Most importantly, the supply of properties has surged. As the laws of supply and demand dictate that stock going up will drive prices down in the short term, perhaps this explains the price falls?

And more importantly, an influx of stock coming on to the market is also a good indication that things are finally starting to return to a normal, post credit crunch way of life.

Some figures are in fact going in the right direction (but good news doesn’t make good headlines), particularly in the Prime market. Our July Prime Index (which is based on asking prices and looks at two tiers: the top 10 per cent and top 25 percent of the UK market) shows top end prices are up month on month. Regionally the top tiers are doing better too – seven of the ten UK regions saw price increases in July. Read the July Prime Index for the full details.

And find out more about the truth behind the property headlines on the Findaproperty.com blog.

The World Cup may be well and truly over – and best forgotten – but the media’s favourite sport, that of WAG-bashing, is still going strong.

Today the ladies the press love to hate are charged with ‘destroying the village of Prestbury’ in Cheshire.

The once-flourishing High Street of this pretty, quintessential English village is now facing its demise, as the closure of the Post Office and local family butcher put yet another nail, disguised as a ‘to let’ sign, in the coffin.

It seems that the arrival of Rooney and Hargreaves, along with a clutch of other football stars (and their wags), is responsible. Attracted by the village’s rural charm and its proximity to Manchester United’s training ground, they are throwing up multi-million pound mansions, pricing out locals in the process, and then refusing to shop in the village, preferring New York, Manchester and Ocado deliveries instead.

Local councillor Bill Livesley says: “It’s very nice that they live in our area but we wish they would invest their good capital in the community… Young local people have been priced out of the area – children who’ve grown up here have to move out of Prestbury to be able to afford to buy a property.”

It’s true. The figures on our sister site, Findaproperty.com, show that the national average price for first-time buyer properties in July was £155,994, whereas in Prestbury you could expect to pay almost double, at £294,116.

And thanks to the my-mansion-is-bigger-than-your-mansion world of Premiership footballers, Prestbury now boasts the most expensive road in the north of England, where the average house price is £1.2 million.