They say hindsight is a wonderful thing, well I think it’s rubbish. For the last couple of years, I’ve been thinking of buying a house; feeding the fat wallet of landlords is not something I want to do for the rest of my life, so it makes sense for me to invest in a house instead. So, just when I think it really is about time that I do something about it, house prices shoot up like they’ve never shot up before. Living in the north east of England - where house prices tend to be lower than anywhere else in the country - has caused me to be apathetic to the fact that they have been steadily rising; I never thought they would go up to the point where I can’t afford to buy one. So, prospective first-time-buyers like me all over the country are put into a difficult situation: whether to wait a while to see if house prices drop to less ridiculous figures, or buy a place now and risk all that nasty ’negative equity’ stuff. Are there any mortgage advisors out there?