Is the oulook for house prices that bad?

Two of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders, the Halifax and the Nationwide, have decided not to make any house price forecasts for 2009. Normally they forecast prices for the coming year in December but the Halifax said it was "not appropriate" due to its impending takeover by Lloyds TSB and the Nationwide said it was simply too difficult at the moment.

Hmmm, does anyone else think the forecast might have been just too depressing to publish?