An Englishman’s home is his castle. However, is that castle about to sink below the waves of the credit crisis, taking another national symbol, the pound sterling, along with it?

US house prices, as is well known, are sliding down. In the six quarters since peaking in the second quarter of 2006, the S&P Case-Shiller US house price index has fallen more than 10 per cent. Over that same period, the UK’s Nationwide house price index has gained 11.5 per cent.