For the next few weeks, a simple question will dominate in the housing market - is it the beginning of a new slowdown in prices, or just seasonal?
Given that many people couldn't get out of their own drives, let alone into somebody else's, it is not a surprise that the housing market has not really got started this year.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) thinks seasonal factors explain the modest slowdown in its latest survey. The proportion of surveyors reporting a rise in house prices minus those reporting falls slipped to 30% last month, from 35% in November, with most of the strength in London, the southeast, the southwest and East Anglia, but prices falling in the north and the Midlands.
Other measures in the survey were weaker, with buyer inquiries, sales expectations and the ratio of sales to stocks all slipping back, even before the snow came.
Yet Jeremy Leaf, of Rics, cautions against reading too much into this. "The recent loss of momentum in prices can in part be attributed to the housing market pulling down its shutters for Christmas," he said. "It is likely that the new year will see more interest and activity in the market, as those who held back start to market their property with renewed optimism."
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Will it? The seasonal adjustments Rics appplies should take care of the Christmas holiday period. January is a different matter: the exceptionally bad weather means much of the month will be a write-off, worse than the statisticians will have allowed for.
Beyond this month, it is a question of momentum. Official figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government suggest that house prices had plenty going into the worst of the winter, jumping by 1.7% in November and rising by 0.6% over 12 months, the first such increase since mid-2008.
Nothing material has changed in the past couple of months, but estate agents are entitled to be a little more nervous than for a while. The snows will go, but will the buyers be back?
- The continuing fall in borrowing costs means people moving house needed 10.6% of gross income to cover their mortgage interest payments in November, the lowest since mid-1996, the Council of Mortgage Lenders says. The debt burden on first-time buyers has shrunk to its smallest since May 2004.