House-hunters across the city are inundating estate agents with demands for properties priced up to £125,000 - and the trend is set to continue.

But properties on sale in the district and their price tags go from one extreme to another.

There are 129,288 homeowners across the district with 71,671 of those in the Bradford North, South and West parliamentary constituencies.

And the huge price disparities were vividly illustrated by the property advertisements carried in the Telegraph & Argus this week.

Among the cheapest properties is a two-bedroom back-to-back stone terrace in Boldshay Street, Barkerend, on the market for £32,950.

But in Burley-in-Wharfedale a six-bedroom detached house has a £1 million asking price.

Elsewhere in the district, Bingley is experiencing a boom of its own, made a more popular hotspot thanks to its new £47.9 million relief road that opened in December.

And Keighley is also attracting lots of interest from first-time buyers.

But John Watts, vice-president of Bradford & District Estate Agents' Association, said properties above the £150,000 mark were proving to be much harder to sell.

"More and more people are deciding to stay put and build an extension or convert the loft instead," he said.

But in its latest Housebuyers Survey, the Yorkshire Bank says that with an average UK mortgage of £105,054, one in eight people claim their monthly payments would have to increase by at least £250 before they would be put off from buying a new home.

And it reveals that one in five first-time buyers are now prepared to stretch their funds even further by offering over the asking price straight away.

Gary Lumby, the bank's head of personal services, said: "First-time buyers are caught in a vicious circle.

"One in two also say that their situation is being made worse as they are struggling to save for a deposit."

The Halifax House Index Report out today also reveals there are now signs that house price inflation in the North is finally beginning to slow.

Prices rose less in the second quarter of 2004 than in the first three months of the year.

The bank says part of the reason for the slow-down, which is expected to follow through to the second half of the year, is the recent rise in interest rates.