Agents have been making hay as a result of the latest optimistic Land Registry price data.
The Registry's January figures show an annual price increase of 6.7 per cent which takes the average property value in England and Wales to £179,492 compared with the peak of £181,101 in November 2007.
House prices rose an average of 1.3 per cent in January.
London experienced the greatest increase in its average property value over the last 12 months, up 12.0 12 per cent but the north west of England experienced the greatest monthly rise with a movement of 2.6 per cent.
During November 2014, the most up-to-date figures available, the number of completed house sales in England & Wales decreased by 19 per cent to 68,107 compared with 83,726 in November 2013. The number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1m decreased by 18 per cent to 869 from 1,060 a year earlier.
Amongst the most encouraging figures were those for repossessions - in England and Wales they decreased by 47 per cent to 687 in November 2014, compared with 1,286 in November 2013. London was the region with the greatest fall in repossession sales.
Agents have responded enthusiastically to the generally buoyant figures.
Andrew Bridges, managing director of Stirling Ackroyd in London, says the capital is at the epicentre of a roaring jobs market leading to a whirpool of demand.
Three times as many Londoners became new homeowners in Q4 2014 as struggled to become first time buyers back in the depths of early 2009 he says.
Nick Leeming, chairman of Jackson-Stops & Staff, says the annual increase of 6.7 per cent in England and Wales, and January's increase of 1.3 per cent, reflects greater economic confidence and low, prevailing interest rates. There is an encouragingly strong result in January's figures from the north west and south west, both areas that have more recently lagged behind.
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