A FEW years ago just after the bankers had tipped the world over the precipice a national newspaper used to run a column called 'Green Shoot Watch' or some such name, with the idea of flagging up any positive economic news. It wasn't an idea that lasted many editions...

But now, amid all the uncertainty about the euro, employment fears, predictions of the UK going into a mild recession in the first half of the year and all the rest of the economic doom and gloom, there does seem to be a glimmer of hope in the housing market.

OK, we all know estate agents are going to talk the market up, but there are some incontrovertible facts which cannot be argued against.

You can read those and the comments from agents and mortgage lenders elsewhere on this page, but there is genuine optimism that things are getting better.

I'll offer my own, anecdotal, evidence. You may have read that I was at the recent Butters John Bee auction.

The place was heaving and properties were going for over the odds – hardly the sign of a depressed market. Late last week I was at Heywoods office in Newcastle, waiting while my colleague took his photos for a story, and I took the opportunity to stand back and take the mood of the place – it was humming. In just five or 10 minutes two people walked in to request details of properties and the phones were ringing too.

This hardly constitutes scientific analysis, but it does suggest that the first few months of this year are shaping up to be better than the same period of 2011.

There is another thing too. I think the message is getting across that vendors must be realistic about the price they want for their home. I've spoken to two valuers in the past week who both say that it is now more common that people will accept their value without demur. A year ago they were lucky to get out of the front door alive after telling the homeowner that they needed to knock at least 10, probably 15, per cent off the figure they had in mind.

It is a buyers' market too. If you have the money to do a deal today there are some great properties and mortgages around which are probably as cheap now as they are ever going to be. Of course, the critical word there is 'if' and as we will examine next week, a lot of first time buyers are struggling to jump the hurdle of the deposit. But there is still money around and property is attracting its fair share of it.

Green shoots, anybody?