The price of detached new houses rose by just 2.5% in 2011, slightly below the average annual increase of around 4.0% over the last ten years, which is not that much higher than average annual personal disposable income growth. These relatively modest gains would appear to suggest that housing bubble concerns are exaggerated. There are good reasons, however, to expect that new house prices should not increase as much as existing house prices, namely quality and location.