The news that the average house price in Bradford has, according to a bank survey, hit the £100,000 mark for the first time might be on the face of it good news to some.

If you have been in your home for some time you might well be sitting on a small fortune, and the temptation to take the equity out of the bricks and mortar is going to be strong.

But the industry has been sounding a note of caution for some time now, with increasing interest rates and pundits predicting that the spectacular price rises in property values cannot continue.

The increasing value of houses is, of course, all relative. Unless you are planning to downsize your life, the boost in the price of your house has to be offset against the rising price of the house you might want to buy next.

Hitting the £100,000 mark for the average house price might bring some satisfaction to some people, who perhaps see it as a narrowing of the fabled North-South divide which separates the so-called affluent half of the country from their apparently more impoverished neighbours.

Perhaps all we're seeing here is a more localised version of the North-South divide, with properties in the rural, well-off areas north of Bradford becoming completely out of reach of people who live in areas near the city centre.

And with the threatened slow-down in housing prices still not here, even those who live in inner-city areas may find that they are priced well and truly out of the market, particularly young people struggling to find the cash to buy their first home.