“So we’re in a situation now where you may well be in a house you don’t like. You can either move while your new house is cheaper or wait in a house you don’t like until the price of the new home goes up. That should be an obvious choice.” Last night Chester-le-Street based Gordon Brown estate agents said the recent rise in home sales was a “welcome if small sign of better times to come”.

Mr Brown said: “We are probably just reaching the end of this now. It is maybe not year on year real growth, it is a time of the year when we expected to see an increase in trade anyway, but even that is far improved from the situation last October.

“Back then it looked as if some banks were going to disappear and that obviously affected sales.

“But from January and up into March we have seen things pick up.

“Since March sales have improved for definite, but they are still 75% down from the previous highs.

“Now, we have to ask ourselves if buried in there is some good, because we don’t really want to see a return to those levels. I think previous prices were unsustainable, we had couples coming in and taking out mortgages they could not afford if their situation changed even slightly, with 100% plus mortgages, and I don’t think going back to that would be a good thing.

“Trade has picked up, but it could be a year before we see a return to stable market conditions.

“Maybe when the next seasonal push comes in October we might see better signs then.

“For now I can honestly say that instead of the pessimism I have had over the last year I am switching to cautious optimism.”

But some experts have warned the seasonal rise in prices has a long way to go before it turns into a recovery.

Daniel Lee, chief executive of property search engine Globrix.com, said: “With many areas of the country experiencing double digit price drops since last September when the economic gloom turned into blind panic, a significant number of homeowners are now faced with the worrying prospect that they are in negative equity.

“However, it does appear that a few areas have managed to buck the trend, remaining resilient in the face of adverse market conditions.”