Ahhhh, Seattle - home of Sub Pop, Starbucks and mutant dogs.

Let me explain. The very amusing blog Photoshop Disasters led me to a very odd property listing in Shoreline, Seattle.

As I flicked through the photos all appeared to be in order: 4 bedrooms, large living room, modern kitchen.

But then on the 7th picture in the gallery it descended into bad weirdness.

For, looming large through the French doors, was a gigantic hound, face pressed to the window, drooling at the artfully arranged fruitbowl on the table.

As Joss points out below, it’s often hard to rent a property if you’re a pet owner. But this takes the (dog) biscuit.

Was it a gargantuan dog (or a Lilliputian house)? Or more prosaically was it a bored real estate agent with too much Photoshop time on their hands?

As a marketing gimmick it certainly worked, the hit-rate for that property must’ve gone through the roof.

Sadly the dog has now been hit by a shrink ray; the listing now shows him standing mournfully in the back yard, normal sized.

“Doctor Doctor, I keep seeing gigantic dogs!”
“Really? How does it make you feel?”
“Rough”
(badum, tish!)

A recent article I wrote about the problems of renting a property with a pet seems to have struck a chord, judging by the number of responses we’ve received.

We even had a woman from Holland demanding, rather haughtily, to know what had happened to ‘animal-friendly England, the one time leaders of animal protection’.

Why, in her country, she informed us, dogs are so universally welcome that restaurants even give them their own seat, a customised canine menu, and a complementary grooming session in between courses.

Not quite.  But I do see her point.  Little doggy dishes are a common enough sight on the floors of many fine restaurants in various European cities.

I’ve also spotted several of those dressed-up mini-dogs being carted around upmarket foreign stores, usually in designer handbags draped over the wealthy arms of powdery old ladies or teenage Paris Hilton wannabes.

But I digress. Going back to the difficulties in finding a des res to rent with a dog, there does seem to be an element of discrimination in this country.

If we were talking about your more flamboyant pets like Marcel the monkey in Friends or a pot-bellied pig a la George Clooney, I could understand, but I don’t quite get why so many landlords are against your average mongrel or moggy.

We rent with our (very) long-haired cat, and the deal in our case is that we’ve paid a higher deposit to cover any claws-caused damage.

I’m happy to report that, in the three years we’ve been there, there’s been nothing more serious than the occasional fur-ball on the carpet, a condition easily rectified by a quick scrub and a blast of the hoover.

But with rental demand on the rise, this pet prejudice is likely to affect an increasing number of people, so isn’t it about time we saw a more continental approach from our landlords?

Have you had problems when trying to rent with a pet? Would you be prepared to pay a higher deposit if your animal was allowed?  Tell us about your pet-renting experiences, good or bad…

Part of my job here at FAP Towers is to upload photos onto the FindaProperty.com area guide pages.

Most of the photos are as per the brief: they give you an idea of what it’s like to live in a particular area. So, house styles, local amenities, shops, pubs, green areas, transport links and waterfowl.

Wait, what? Waterfowl? Read on and I’ll explain…

Having looked through thousands of photos over the past two years it seems that our feathered friends are getting in on the area photo act.

Showing the same dogged (quacked?) persistence of a Z-list celebrity at a B-movie premiere the avian aquatic crowd are somehow catching the eye of our intrepid area snappers to ensure they appear in the photo galleries.

Overall it seems that swans play it cool with effortless elegance – yes I know I’m beautiful, you may take my picture.

Geese however display a certain bad boy aggression – take my picture or I’ll effin’ peck you, see if I don’t.

And the ducks? Well they just sit there looking funny. I’ve never met a duck that didn’t make me laugh.

So in honour of all their breast puffing and leg showing, here are the Jodie Marshes and Callum Bests of the bird kingdom, shamelessly strutting their stuff for FindaProperty.com.

Photos: Steve Roberts, Kate Woolhouse, Lucy Blake, Mike O’Flynn, Phil O’Connor

Two recent headlines, published within a day of one another.

•    House prices to ‘plunge a third by 2010′ – This is Money.

•    House prices ‘up by 25 per cent by 2013′ – The Guardian.

The first is based on a report from Roger Bootle of Capital Economics. The second is based on a report produced for the National Housing Federation by Oxford Economics.

Bootle has been predicting a house price crash for years and now, understandably, feels his moment has come (see his Ha!, I told you so piece in The Telegraph recently.)

I wasn’t wrong, is his line, I was just a bit early with my predictions … and the fact that the market boomed for longer than I thought will mean a bigger fall.

The National Housing Federation represents 1300 independent housing associations.

They think prices will pick up fairly quickly because rapid population growth and shortfalls in housing supply will keep the pressure on house prices (and force more people to turn to housing associations in search of an affordable solution).

Both, in other words, have their own line to push.

Which reminds me of a very old joke…

An interviewer asks a mathematician: “What does two plus two equal?”

“Four,” he replies. “Four, exactly?” asks the interviewer.

“Yes, four, exactly, and always,” says the incredulous mathematician.

The interviewer then asks an economist the same question.

The economist gets up, locks the door, pulls down the blinds, and whispers, with a nervy glance over his shoulder:

“What do you want it to equal?”

As a matter of interest, who do you think is closer to the truth? And if neither, what do you think will happen to house prices?

It ain’t the workin’ man’s blues, it ain’t the lovin’ blues … it’s the subprime mortgage crisis blues!

A catchy animated take on the US housing market from the Explanotions team on Current TV…

(If you can’t see the above video you may need the latest version of Flash Player. Click here to download it.)

Here are the top 20 areas that people searched for on FindaProperty.com during June.

I was browsing through our South West pages today in search of a wreck when I came across this three-sided curiosity.

It’s the entrance to a now defunct underground reservoir and was originally commissioned by the Duke of Bedfordshire (more here: Legendary Dartmoor).

Being a duke (ie: minted) he didn’t employ some local brickie to knock a few walls together. Gad no. He commissioned Edwin Lutyens, the uber architect of the Edwardian era.

Lutyens came up with this charming little fairytale structure using slate and Hurdwick stone. The simplicity of circle surrounding triangle gives it a strangely occult vibe - you wouldn’t be surprised to see Gandalf stepping out the front door.

It measures 40′x40′, is 11′ deep and is known locally (and unflatteringly) as The Pimple.

With a £10,000 price tag it’s hugely tempting, so much so that we’re half thinking of having a whip around here in the sumptuously appointed FAP Editorial Suite (that kind of money would barely cover our monthly biscuit delivery from Harrods).

But we have a problem.  What on earth would we do with it?

Suggestions please!

The Pimple is being sold by Ward & Chowen, Tavistock (Tel: 0845 437 5766).

Last summer - just as the Northern Rock storm broke – I was in the process of buying a flat in Brighton.

The deal dragged on and then eventually collapsed because the sellers were convinced that prices would just keep on rising - this despite my best efforts to explain that the market really was at its peak (never has the phrase “I’m a property journalist” fallen on such deaf ears!)

They refused to budge and then pulled out of the deal. With the market looking shaky, I decided to rent.

The question I’m mulling over at the moment is whether I should buy now or hold on a bit longer?

And I’m not alone. Yesterday a colleague wandered over to my desk. “Mike,” he said (with barely a trace of irony), “I’m told you’re the font of all housing knowledge: should I buy now?”

Yes, yes, that’s me folks, and speaking in my official capacity as TFOAHK (think long white beard, flowing robes, rather cool sandals, booming voice), let me say this unto you all:

Even when a plague – or a credit crunch - falleth upon the land and all seems dark and hopeless there will be opportunities out there. Although recent reports would have you believe the market has ground to a halt, people are still buying. And let’s be fair – they can’t all be mad.

Some quick-witted investors and first-time buyers are bagging bargains and some people trading up have discovered that what they lose in a price reduction on their place they gain in a price cut on their new home.

But buying now very much depends on your personal circumstances (financial and otherwise), your local market, and your attitude to risk.

In Brighton asking prices don’t seem to have fallen much - by just under ten per cent in the area I was previously considering. And when I did a few calculations the other day I discovered that rate rises have pretty much negated those falls.

My rent is currently 30 per cent less that what my mortgage payments would be, saving rates are high and prices look like they could slide further in the months ahead, so I’m thinking I’ll sit tight – at least for the moment.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping a close eye on things – though I’m conscious that there are an awful lot of people out there doing the same thing: our stats man tells me visitors to FindaProperty.com have held very firm over the past six months (at around 2.4m) and are up 16 per cent year-on-year (see table below).

That represents an awful lot of pent up demand and I reckon it will start to translate into sales as the market begins to bottom out. When will that be? Quite honestly, I have no idea (and neither does anyone else).

But I can see things picking up if prices fall for another five or six months and then interest rates/mortgage rates edge down: the combination of enticing prices and lower mortgage payments is bound to bring buyers back. And then it really will be a case of “On your marks…”

The Association of Residential Letting Agents has just published a new report on the Private Rented Sector.

Its author, Professor Michael Ball, argues that rents could rise by 10-15 per cent in 2008 and 2009.

Rents, he claims, will be especially strong in London and the South East where demand is highest, but will slide in northern cities which have an oversupply of new-build properties.

Far be it for me to cross swords with a fully paid up Professor of Urban and Property Economics, but did he, by any chance, take a look at the latest ARLA report on the buy-to-let market?

Here’s a direct quote:

Compared with three months ago, weighted average rents for houses are down by seven per cent as a result of decreases of 16 per cent in Prime Central London, five per cent for the Rest of the UK and one per cent for  the Rest of the South East.

Average rents for flats are also down overall, by nine per cent, as a result of decreases for all the broad geographical areas.

Ball makes the point that rents will rise because supply will be cut off by fewer landlords buying.  But RICS recently noted that supply was on the rise because lots of vendors unable to sell are letting the place out instead.

He also argues that landlords will be keen to make up for the impact of higher interest rates and inflation. But bigger bills hit tenants too, and there must, surely, be a limit to how far they can be pushed?

Is the good professor right? I’d like to hear from all you landlords, tenants and letting agents out there – what’s happening to rents in your area?

“Evan, EVAN, could I just finish answering the question if that’s ok….”

Housing Minister Caroline Flint was on a hiding to nothing this morning as she tried to avoid questions about the Government’s housing policy and the likelihood of actually building 3m new homes by 2020.

She was, however, given a bit of a mauling by Evan Davis (presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme), not least when he asked if house price falls were a Good Thing.

Full marks there for a devilishly clever question - though Flint, spotting the danger, knew she’d be damned if she said yes and damned if she said no.

So in time-honoured politico fashion she pretended she’d been asked a completely different question.

But what answer would you give? Are price falls a bad thing, and if not, what’s positive about the current situation?

You can hear the interview on the BBC (if you want to cut to the chase, she comes in at 4:18 mins):